The Mesa State women’s golf team expects a successful weekend at Regionals in St. Paul Minn. According to Coach Scott Hansen, the team has played well. They finished second in the Rocky Mountain Athletic Conference and they were picked to win the conference at the beginning of the season.

“We are right where we expected to be at this point,” Hansen said. “You know after the season got started, just making it to Regionals. These girls here have all been to Regionals before and three of them have been there a couple of years, so they have some experience on their side. Hopefully that pays off and we can get into the top three teams and move on to the 2011 NCAA Division II Women’s Golf Championships at The Meadows in Allendale, Mich.”

The team has had a great year but a couple individuals have had standout seasons. Junior Jennifer Hilts was Player of the Week for the RMAC twice this year and junior Jessica Berve received the award once and was the lowest scorer in the RMAC Championship.

“Those two have been rocks this year as far as leading the team in scoring average and winning some tournaments,” Hansen said.

Berve is proud of how the team has fought back even though they struggled this season.

“We have remained focused and worked hard and it paid off at the RMAC Championship,” Berve said. “Hopefully our hard work will pay off in Regional’s and maybe we can be focused enough to make it to Nationals.”

Berve said it was difficult to play under that pressure.

“We really want to make it to nationals and we are going to do our best to do that but ultimately if we don’t make it that will just motivate us to work harder for next year and do it again.” Berve said.

If the Mavs move on to Nationals this year, Hansen would consider it a successful season because the last two years they have made it to Regionals. If they don’t advance, it’s just going to be another year.

The team starts its journey to nationals May 1 in St. Paul, Minn. at Hillcrest Country Club at the NCAA D-II Super Regional. Concordia University will serve as the host.

afix@mesastate.edu