May 29, 2008

With two tournament championships, two medalists and one of the highest cumulative team grade point averages among all of the Dayton Flyer teams, one can easily argue UD women's golf enjoyed its best season ever.

The 2007-08 season proved to be a memorable one as the Flyers won the Ashland Invitational and the Bellarmine Invitational in the spring and finished in the Top Five in seven events.

It all started at the Youngstown State Invitational where Julie Pouliquen became the first UD golfer to finish as an individual medalist in a tournament since the 2004-05 season, winning the event by three strokes. The Flyers finished the event in second place and set the tone for the rest of the year.

Dayton picked up another second place finish, this time at the Detroit Titans Invitational. Three Flyers, Katie Gallagher, Katie Dempsey and Pouliquen each finished in the Top 10.

After suffering brief setbacks at the IPFW Fall Classic and the Austin Peay Intercollegiate, Dayton returned home to pick up its third second-place finish of the fall season at the UD Invitational. With scores of 78 and 73, Gallagher became the second Flyer to medal in the fall season and earn the best finish in her Flyer career.

The spring season showed no signs of slowing down as the Flyers opened the campaign with a fourth place finish at the New Wave Communications Racer Classic.

With eight UD golfers placing in the Top 12 overall, the Flyers picked up a first place finish at the three-team Bellarmine Invitational. Pouliquen recorded her second first place finish of the year while Gallagher finished in third, Dempsey in fourth and Megan Keating tied for fifth.

UD's success wouldn't stop there as the Flyers won the Ashland Huntington Bank Invitational by 17 strokes. Dempsey earned the best finish of her career coming in second, while Casey Peterson tied for seventh among individuals.

Although Dayton completed the 2007-08 campaign with a ninth place finish at the 2008 Colonial Athletic Association Women's Golf Championship, it was a memorable season.

Out of the seven returnees, all of them set career bests for best finish and six of the seven tallied their top individual round.

But the achievements didn't stop on the course.

The Flyers also excelled in the classroom during the 2008 spring semester with a cumulative team grade point average of 3.527 and eight student-athletes on the Dean's List.

Looking ahead to 2008-09 head coach Sally Kosters loses only one senior, Mary Kane, and return its top five golfers. With a strong foundation in place, UD appears poised to repeat their success.