Last year was a great season for the women’s golf team here at Simpson. They beat out rival Wartburg for the Iowa Intercollegiate Athletic Conference (IIAC) title and made a trip to Nationals.

Some might think that there isn’t a whole lot of room to improve coming off a season like that. Rest assured that the members of the women’s golf team are far from complacent. Despite last year’s success, the golfers have all set their sights towards one common goal: defending the conference title and making a return trip to Nationals.

“Our goal is for everyone to improve their scores so we can win conference and return to Nationals in May,” senior Noel Treibel said.

The goal to make a return to Nationals is evident in the returning golfers as well as a newcomer to the team this season.

“My goals for the team are to defend the conference title and for us to make it to Nationals,” freshman Chelsy Manny said.

Such a goal may not seem like it would be all that tough, considering the great year the women had last year, but the members of this year’s team know that duplicating or improving on last year’s success will not be easy.

One thing the team has heavily in their favor is a steady flow of encouragement from their head coach, Bob Darrah. His encouragement inspires the golfers to strive for improvement with every swing of the golf club.

“Coach Darrah is a die-hard competitor and he really pushes us to do our best and never give up,” Treibel said. “He is a great coach.”

Coach Darrah’s style made an early impression on newcomer, Manny.

“Coach Darrah is awesome,” Manny said. “He is always there when he is needed and he has taught me so many new things already.”

The consensus among the team is that Wartburg will be the toughest competition they face while trying to defend their conference title. Wartburg finished as the runner-up behind the Storm for the conference title last season.

“Wartburg is definitely the toughest competition,” said Smith. “They finished second behind us last year and they’re scoring very well right now.”

With IIAC rival Wartburg being the toughest team the women will face, the golfers all know that getting better every time they step on the course will be the key to defending their conference title.

“We need to improve our scores every meet to win conference.” Treibel said.

Small numbers on the team also stresses importance with every outing.

“Since we only have five golfers we really need to improve every time we go out on the course,” Smith said.

The women’s golf team knows what they need to do to win, and with coach Darrah pushing them every step of the way, the women’s golf team will either repeat last year’s success or go down swinging.