Good first weekend puts Storm in contention for IIAC title this weekend

by Brett Crable

The Simpson College women’s golf team is currently in the midst of the Iowa Conference Championship, which started Sept. 28-29 and will continue into the weekend of Oct. 5-6.

This past weekend was quite exciting for the women’s golf team as they started out on a tear last Fridayending the afternoon in third place as a team in the conference. The team was led by the sensational play from senior Jennifer Gaffney, and junior Stacy Bergeson.

Gaffney set a new Simpson record by shooting an even-par 72 on the day, which led all other golfers. Gaffney ended up only one stroke shy of tying the lowest round ever recorded in the tournament, which was set by Central’s Sarah Paulsen in 2008. Bergeson was not far behind as she finished four strokes higher than Gaffney, shooting a 76 through 18 holes,.

Gaffney was enjoying every moment of her history making day as well as the success her teammates had as well.

“It was awesome, it was just easy to play and it was a fun time,” Gaffney said, “It’s a wide open course so if you mess up on your drive you still have a good shot into the green and I was just putting really well and chipping really well.”

After dealing with some poor weather conditions on Saturday, the whole team was affected including Gaffney, causing her to fall behind a little in the standings.

With this upcoming weekend still intact, Gaffney believes that she still has a shot to win the Championship.

“I just need to play my best and play tough the whole time,” Gaffney said “Every shot counts so you just have to do your best on every shot and make sure I give it my all.”

Head Women’s Golf Coach, Noel Knock, expects great things from her girls as they look to finish strong and play the way that she knows they can.

“I think they are more prepared this weekend than maybe some of these other teams are, and I think just being in the third place position with some of the better teams that are out there in the Iowa Conference have really given them the drive this week to practice and no doubt Bos is more challenging, but I just keep telling the girls it is just another course,” Knock said.

Going into this upcoming week the Storm are in fifth place in the Conference Championships after dealing with the poor weather condition this past Saturday.

The team is looking to bounce back and finish strong as they will start play on an even tougher course this weekend at the Bos Landen Golf Course in Pella, Iowa.

There has been curiosity in regards to why the conference wants to play on two different courses for the Conference Championship.

Junior Jessica Lerdal believes that it is set up this way to promote challenges for the players during the tournament.

“The variety of courses makes it harder,” Lerdal said “Every year we play at the same course in the first round and then in the second round they have a different host team from one person from the whole conference, and then we play at their home course usually, and if they don’t have a course, they just pick a course.”

The Storm finish up rounds three and four in the Iowa Conference Championship this weekend starting today and then concluding tomorrow.