ASU women's golf placed in the top 10 of all four tournaments this fall, while also making a statement to the rest of the Pac-12 with a first place finish at the conference's Preview Tournament in Hawaii.
After proving their skills in a difficult Pac-12, the Sun Devils will now focus on taking the next step forward heading into the team's offseason.
"Overall I think we had a really good fall," head coach Missy Farr-Kaye said. "I think we learned a lot about ourselves. I feel like we were a better team than what we may have shown at the Annika (Intercollegiate), and at Stanford we didn't have the opportunity to finish that last day and move up the leader board."
Farr-Kaye was referring to the Sun Devils' 9th place finish in Orlando, FL, which was their worst of the fall season. ASU tied for sixth at the Stanford Intercollegiate after not being able to complete the final 18 holes due to inadequate weather.
There's no doubt that the team's Pac-12 Preview victory was a total confidence boost for ASU, especially with a three-month hiatus from competition that just began last week.
"Winning the Pac-12 is huge for our team heading into the spring," freshman Olivia Mehaffey said. "I think it has given us the belief we can beat some of the really top schools out there."
The ASU women were hitting on all cylinders in Hawaii en route to the tournament win.
The surprise of the fall came in the form of junior Sophia Zeeb, who seemed to keep getting better as the season went along.
"Her impact on the team was very important," Farr-Kaye said. "For someone that I would say was probably ranked fourth on the team, her scoring average is probably second right now."
Zeeb's teammates speak of her as the most improved player this season.
"Sophia really turned it on this fall," senior Monica Vaughn said. "Her scoring average went way down compared to last spring, and she had a few top-10s. She has made a lot of improvements to her game, and it has really showed."
ASU women's golf getting some shots up on the range featuring Olivia Mehaffey, Sophia Zeeb & Linnea Strom. #ASUWomensGolf #Road2Nationals pic.twitter.com/zW9fupjuqF
— Tyler Handlan (@tyler_handlan) November 9, 2016
ASU does not suffer from a lack of talent, with three of the top-15 world amateurs in Vaughn, Mehaffey and sophomore Linnea Strom. Despite a skilled squad at the top, Farr-Kaye understands that it takes more than just three golfers.
"That fourth score needs to be low," Farr-Kaye said. "It's all about your depth chart to win a tournament. You've got to have depth in the four and five."
Zeeb may have solidified the four spot on the depth chart thanks to her play this fall, and with the likes of junior Roberta Liti and sophomore Madison Kerley anchoring the five slot at a high level, the entire ASU women's golf program wants to take advantage of the opportunity in front of them.
"Normally we would always just kind of do our own thing in the offseason and have some downtime," Vaughn said. "After our win, coach switched it up this year. She is having us still put in the hours and work hard now to prepare us for the spring. I think it's really important if we want to win a national championship that we keep doing what we're doing."
In pursuit of the most significant honor in all of collegiate golf, the Sun Devil women also have some smaller goals that they want to accomplish before championship season throughout the month of May.
For the team's "big three" (Vaughn, Strom and Mehaffey), it's something that any golfer with their skill levels wants to accomplish at every tournament.
"We don't have an individual win in the fall," Farr-Kaye said. "For those three, that's their goal. And I think that they all feel that they have room to improve and get out there and win individual tournaments."
This group of young women could be the next great ASU golf team to add to historic teams of the 1990s and the more recent 2009 National Championship team.
If they can make a dream a reality, it would mean a collection of different things for many women on the roster. For Vaughn, who only has one half season left of her college golf career, this would be the ultimate walk-off.
"The end goal is always a national championship," Vaughn said. "If we are all on top of our games like we were in Hawaii and we have the same kind of momentum as a team, we can't be beat. We've got probably more talent than any other team out there right now, and we just need to come together more than ever in the spring."
Reach the reporter at thandlan@asu.edu or follow @Tyler_Handlan on Twitter.
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