Queen Bees Notebook

This year’s team is shaping up to be a good one, with the loss of only one linkster from last year’s Midwest Collegiate Conference Championship team. The Bees also added four new recruits to round out a solid squad.

With the addition of the new girls, Orfitelli sees a challenge for the fourth, fifth and sixth spots, which is something that will benefit the whole team in the long run.

Wet weather has delayed finding that perfect fit. The girls returned to Ambrose for practice on August 19, and since then have had to deal with a lot of rain making it difficult to train and prepare for these two meets and figure out their lineup.

Although the placements of the athletes are still in question, the goals of the team have been decided for many months now. After last year’s disappointing end, without a bid to nationals, the team is driven with that in mind.

“Our job this year is first to win conference and then to win regionals,” Orfitelli said. “If we do that, then nobody is in the way for nationals.”

This past weekend was a good start for the season and got the team headed down the right path to attain their goals.

u Two tournaments, two wins: After many months of off-season training including golf lessons, summer leagues, and a few summer tournaments for some, the women’s golf team is beginning to collect the benefits.

They began their season Labor Day weekend by winning both of their meets. Hopefully this success is a reflection of what is to come to the team during the remainder of the season.

The ladies began their weekend with a meet hosted by Mount Mercy on Friday in Marion, Iowa at the Hunter’s Ridge Golf Course. Although the course was a tough one the Bees managed to come out on top, if only by nine strokes, with a total of 340.

The difficult pin placements on the course along with the nervousness that naturally comes with the first meet of the season poorly impacted their strokes on the front nine. However they rebounded on the back to finish on top.

“The team really grouped it up and got it back together in the back nine and especially in the conditions that we had,” head coach Mike Orfitelli said. “I’m really happy about our finish out there.”

Senior captain Nicole Keeney, last year’s NAIA Region VII champion, took the first place medal carding a 76. Teammate Kelly Jansen placed third to join her on the All-Tournament team, an honor given to the top five women.

On Saturday, the team came out on top again with a total of 327 strokes at the Augustana Triangular. The meet took place in Davenport at the Emeis Golf Course and was comprised of both the A and B teams from Augustana and Ambrose along with Coe College’s team. St. Ambrose’s team was led by three Bees who were named to the top tourney team: Keeney chipped in with a 78, while Jansen and Megan Heller both scored 81.

u The week ahead: During this week they will be focusing on improving their putting and becoming more relaxed with it. This Thursday, the Bees have the Augustana Fall Classic at Emeis Golf Course in which the entire team will participate. From that meet, however, only five ladies from the team will be chosen to travel to the Wartburg Invite this weekend.

SAU women's golf team captains Megan Heller, Nicole Keeney, Kelly Jansen and Emily Dean present St. Ambrose presidet Sr. Joan Lescinski with her very own SAU golf bag.

Although St. Ambrose’s new president Joan Lescinski won’t be inaugurated until Oct. 5, the women’s golf team is giving their welcome to her a little sooner.

On Wednesday Sept. 12, the top women’s golfers will be presenting President Lescinski with her very own St. Ambrose golf bag embroidered with her name. The idea came about after head coach Mike Orfitelli discovered President Lescinski enjoys playing golf.

“It seemed like it would not only be a nice gesture to welcome Sr. Joan, but it’s also something she can use,” Orfitelli said.

u Ups and downs of tournament play: Coming off of a picture perfect opening weekend, Labor Day weekend, the Queen Bee golf team had slightly different results this weekend.

At the Augustana Fall Classic on Thursday at Emeis Golf Course in Davenport the Bees played well. It was their second meet at that golf course giving them a slight advantage over the rest of the field.

Unfortunately for the Ambrose team, the Vikings had the meet of their season, if not of their lives. They shot very well and set a new school record with a team score of 323.

SAU, however, was right up there finishing a mere five strokes behind Augustana for second place with a total score of 328. With that score they achieved one of their season goals by scoring less than 330 strokes every meet.

"Overall I am pleased with the results.” SAU head coach Mike Orfitelli said. “There were a lot of strong teams, and we were right there with them.”

Senior Nicole Keeney who won the season opening event and shot under 80 both of the first two meets, had a few setbacks this week and tied with Emily Dean, Megan Heller, and Kenzie Hein for eleventh place with a score of 84.

However a few adjustments in her game should change that for the better. Orfitelli has faith that she will work hard to get her game back into shape.

As an entire team a little fine tuning is necessary. Everyone needs to score as low as they can and work at becoming more comfortable with themselves and their game. It is only a minor setback that they need to work through to go on to the next level of competing.

Junior Kelly Jansen had an excellent meet; scoring a mere four strokes above par to place second, just one stroke behind Augustana’s medalist, Rachel Gahn.

Jansen brought that consistency along with her to the Wartburg Invitational last weekend too. She led the Ambrose linksters placing 26th with a total score of 167.

Right behind her in 32nd place were Keeney and Hein with a total of 171. Only one stroke behind them was freshman Caiti Childers rounding out the scoring team in 38th place. Heller also competed in the meet, placing 43rd with a total of 174.

Their combined scores led to a 6th place finish with a total of 680 strokes for the two day meet. Not a great finish for the weekend, but they did alright. Especially the first day of competition on the difficult course.

u The week ahead: Coming up this week the team is going to practice their putting, short chip shots, and approach shots. On Friday, September 14th the varsity will head to the University of St. Francis while the JV team will be attending the Loras Invitational. On Saturday and Sunday the team will partake in the Illinois Wesleyan Invitational.

The Queen Bees are coming off of this weekend soaring high. They played a weekend full of golf taking first place on Friday at the Iowa Wesleyan Invitational and capturing second place on Saturday at the Fighting Bee Classic. They have been able to come out with some confidence that they can play a consistent game day in and day out.

The lineup at the Iowa Wesleyan Invitational in Muscatine was slightly altered than usual because a couple of girls had academic obligations and another was ill. Even with these last minute alterations in their game the Bees still managed to step it up and come out with a win.

Nicole Keeney was the medalist for the meet. She led the team with a total of 76 strokes. Right behind her was Kenzie Hein, in second place, with a score of 78. Only a few places behind them in seventh place was Caiti Childers with a total of 82. Rounding out the team was either Krisha Knary or Michelle Macchione, both tied for 18th place with a total of 88 strokes.

“The course was in pretty good shape.” Said Coach Orfitelli. “The greens were a little bit tough because they had just arriated them but the girls did a good job.”

The team finished first in these altered conditions with an excellent score of 324 winning the tournament by five strokes. Wheaton College finished second with 329, and Waldorf College came in third with 336.

On Saturday at their home meet, the Fighting Bee Classic held at Glynns Creek Golf Course the Bees scored a 324 again. Unfortunately though, it was only good enough to earn second place behind Wheaton College.

The Bees did all they could, Wheaton just had one of those amazing days, with four of their golfers below 80, they were tough competition.

“I am not disappointed,” says Orfitelli. “I think they did really well, sometimes things just happen.”

The Queen Bees had three ladies place in the top ten. Nicole Keeney took fourth in 78 strokes; Kelly Jansen was sixth in 79 strokes, and freshman Michelle Macchione finished eighth with a score of 80.

u The week ahead: Hopefully this weekend provided only a preview of next week as much of the competition that the ladies faced will also be competing at the conference meet this Saturday through Monday. The conference line up will consist of Nicole Keeney, Kelly Jansen, Megan Heller, Kenzie Hein, Caitlin Childers, and Michelle Macchione.

As everything is continuing to move in the right direction for the Bees they will continue to physically prepare themselves by working on their short game at practice as well as mentally preparing themselves.

The Women’s Golf Team carried on tradition this past weekend by winning the Conference meet.  However, they also embarked on a new one as this year’s conference name changed, giving the Bees the title of Midwest Collegiate Conference Champs. 

Earning this title came with a little bit of work from the team.  They had to keep positive despite playing through rain delays and thunderstorms.  The first day of competition they had an hour long delay and didn’t finish until it was dark.  The course suffered from all the rain.  Despite these conditions the women stuck it out ending day one with a 15 stroke lead over the host team. 

“I think we played pretty smart this weekend,” Said Senior, Captain Nicole Keeney. “We had to make a lot of good decisions on the back nine with all of the water and hazards present.”

In addition to the weather conditions the team faced an unusual course for them.  It was a little bit more difficult than they are used to as well as being very long in comparison to others that they have played on this season.  This, however, will make the regional course seem that much shorter.

The team finished in the lead by an astounding 25 strokes over Waldorf College.  The Bees finished with a combined two day total of 680, an excellent score given the conditions.

“We did our best.” Said Nicole Keeney. “Obviously it was enough (to win), which is nice”

They were lead by Captain Nicole Keeney and Freshman Michelle Macchione who tied for second place with a total of 167.  Right behind them, with a total of 168, was Kelly Jansen in fourth place.

Rounding out the scoring team were Caitlin Childers and Megan Heller who finished 9^th, 182, and 10^th, 184, respectively. 

At Conference some of the younger girls stepped up their game to help the team. 

“The best part of this weekend was coming in and finding out how everybody else did.” Said Keeney. “I was really happy about how Michelle played and how our team has each others backs, when someone is having an off day someone else steps it up.”

u The week ahead: Hopefully that team characteristic of stepping up will continue this coming weekend at regionals. 

The team will travel to the Regional Tournament this Saturday through Monday.  While there they hope to accomplish a goal that they set last year and take the title.  Coming off of this weekend they have the confidence to do just that, as much of the competition will be the same. 

As an individual Nicole Keeney hopes to play her best and claim the NAIA Regional title for the second consecutive year as well as win as a team and go to nationals.

This week the team will be focusing on making slight adjustments to their game in preparation for regionals.

Mission Accomplished.  The Bees are on the road to Nationals.  Although the road is a bit long being that nationals will not take place until the middle of May 2008.  The team has traveled a long road to finally reach their destination of nationals already.

After narrowly missing the chance to go to nationals as a team last year, the team made a commitment to prepare for this season and to get to nationals.  They will have to continue this effort as they prepare for the national meet in San Marcos, California, in May. 

The regional meet began with a decent day of competition, leaving the bees in the lead by five strokes at the end of the day.

Day one was a tough one both mentally and physically.  It was 90 degrees outside leaving them dehydrated despite downing bottle after bottle of water on the course.  Mentally it was difficult for the team to come back to the meet after last years disappointing finish. 

“The first day the team was nervous and concerned about things, they played okay, but not as good as I know that they can,” said Coach Orfitelli.

Coming off of a mediocre day they went into the second day of competition with a little bit more confidence and less nerves.  They went out and just did what they can do, and finished with a solid performance; finishing in first with a team score of 323, one of the best scores of the season.

They beat Waldorf College by a whopping 23 strokes.  All five ladies put together some pretty good individual and team scores.  Kelley Jansen (2^nd, 154) and Nicole Keeney (4^th, 164) both made the All-Regional team.  Jansen missed medalist honors by only one stroke, landing her in second behind Valeria Cogollo of Waldorf. 

One thing that really allowed the Bees to fly high this year was having so many athletes at the same level.  It really allowed them to play as a team and to compete with each other for those top spots.  This only improved that scoring team and allowed four of the five bees to finish in the top ten at regionals.

The team this year has really been a collaborative effort from the new freshman to the experienced seniors.  The seniors have continuously worked hard during practice and leading the others to practice hard as well.  Along with those experienced linksters, Michelle Machione is a freshman who has been steadily moving forward and has contributed to the team quite a bit.