Sept. 12, 2010
VUcommodores.com caught up with head women’s golf coach Greg Allen before his team departed for College Station, Texas, for the Fall Preview, which features the top 16 teams from the 2009-10 campaign. Here is part one of his thoughts on his team heading into the season and what we can expect from a team that returns four starters and finished seventh at the NCAA Championship.
Talk about the first tournament, are you excited?
GA: “I think we are excited to get the season going. You know, we finished last season playing as well as we played all year. Hopefully, that momentum will carry over into this season. This will be the first time a few of them have competed in a while, so I think they are anxious to get the competitive juices flowing again. We have had a solid two and a half weeks. I think we are ready to get into the routine of playing competitive golf again, being on the road, kind of getting back into that routine of what was so good for us last year.”
You ended the season seventh at nationals, which is a good finish. Talk about some expectations for this year.
GA: “Well, the thing we keep talking about is that it’s a brand new year. We can take what happened last year and all the positives from last year and let it kind of boast our confidence this year, but you know on paper we look like we should be pretty good. It’s a matter of going out there and executing shots and making putts, but I’m excited I think these four girls that are coming back from the squad last year are ready to go. They are excited, they know what they are capable of doing and it’s just a matter of our two new girls (Rene Sobolweski, Julia Thead) and Gabby fighting it out for that fifth spot all year long. You know, as far as expectations we know what we are capable of doing; we know it’s a long season with a long break between the fall and the spring. We learned last year that we want to be peaking at the right time. Obviously, we want to go out every tournament and have a chance to play well and that is our focus this year. Every time we tee it up we want to play our best and not worry about anything else – just play our best, add them up when we’re done and see where that puts us.”Marina Alex is one of the best returning golfers in America, what has she done this summer? What are you expecting out of her this year?
GA: “The great thing about Marina, and her time here, and the time I have had to coach her, is that she has always learned from experiences. You look at her freshman year and she turned some tough tournaments into a learning experience and was able to have a really good sophomore year. I have talked to her again about the fact that it’s a brand new year for her as well. She can’t compare last year to this year. This year could be so good that it could make her look back at last year and think, man that wasn’t very good. She is capable of doing some great things. She has got such a great way about thinking about her game and tournaments. She loves to compete. She’s one that’s just tired of qualifying, tired of playing here at home, and is ready to get out there and start competing.”Megan Grehan is your lone senior. Is she going to assume more of a leadership role for you this year?
GA: “We need Megan to step up and be a leader, a vocal leader. I think that’s kind of what we are lacking right now. Someone who wants to step up and be a vocal leader for us – we have a lot of great young ladies who can lead by example, but we need someone to kind of step up and not be afraid to speak when someone needs to speak up. She has got more experience than anybody. She has played in every tournament and she has had a rollercoaster-type career. She has had some really good rounds and some round that weren’t her best, but from what I have seen of her the last two and a half weeks, she’s ready. She’s ready to hopefully take it to another level, she’s confident. I see a different look about her and that’s what she’s been working on the last three years. Just being more confident, really trusting her game and trusting her abilities.”
