Whitman’s Women’s Golf team entered the spring portion of their 2015-16 season with very high expectations. Junior Lou Points returning from her semester abroad to join an already potent lineup. Teaming up with her for the spring season were first-year Charlotte Simons and a trio of top 30 players nationally in terms of stroke average: sophomore Phoebe Nguyen, first-year Shiyang Fan and senior Alyssa Maine.

“The fall was great and it was great building tournaments up to the spring, but it was nice that we loaded this spring with important tournaments,” Maine said.

The team had a terrific start to the spring schedule, winning their first two tournaments with Shiyang Fan taking the individual title in the first and Phoebe Nguyen winning the second. Next up on the schedule was the Jekyll Island tournament, featuring 11 of the top 25 teams in the nation.

“We went in with the mindset that we were going to win, and after the first day we were in the lead by two strokes. That boosted our confidence a lot,” Lou Points said.

The women had a spectacular first day, shooting a school record 299 to take the lead.

“For years we’ve had the goal of breaking 300 as a team on our goal chart. We did that the first day, shooting a 299,” said Assistant Athletics Director Skip Molitor.

Alyssa Maine, the sole senior on the team, echoed the team’s feelings of accomplishment.

“We broke our previous school record of 306, which since … my freshman year has been on our goals board, and we’ve been waiting and waiting to cross it off,” added Maine.

Last season, the team set multiple records and surprised the NWC with several first place finishes. So at the start of this season, there was a palpable sense of heightened expectations and goals.

“One of the primary goals was just to get us ready for the two majors, the Spring Classic and the [NWC] Championship, and we couldn’t have asked for a better performance from a standpoint of being ready to play at the highest level,” Molitor said of the Georgia trip. “It would certainly be a realistic goal for this team to want to win the Northwest Conference. [George] Fox obviously has that goal as well. You’ve got two teams that are, right now, both in the top ten [in] the country, so it should be a great Spring Classic and a great NWC Championship.”

The team certainly played up to lofty expectations in the first major of the spring, the Spring Classic, hosted at Whitman’s home course, Wine Valley. The team lead after the first round by one over George Fox, with rounds of 74, 76, 76, 77 from the scoring foursome. The second round was even better, as Alyssa Maine carded a career best two under par 70, putting her in a tie with teammate Shiyang Fan for second overall. Phoebe Nguyen took the individual title with an even par 72 Sunday following at 74 in Saturday’s action. There were plenty more highlights from the weekend, including first-year Charlotte Simons recording her best round of the year on the second day.

The women now look to the Northwest Conference Championships in two weeks as they attempt to claim a Conference title. Coming off a school record score for both the one-day and two-day competition along with three wins and a runner-up finish in the four tournaments leading up to the final major, the team has plenty of momentum heading into the most important tournament of the season.