This time last year, the Portland State women’s golf team was fighting with Northern Arizona University for the number one spot in the Big Sky Conference. Head coach Kathleen Takaishi was leading a team full of talent who would eventually be Big Sky champions.
This time last year, the Portland State women’s golf team was fighting with Northern Arizona University for the number one spot in the Big Sky Conference. Head coach Kathleen Takaishi was leading a team full of talent who would eventually be Big Sky champions.
This year, the team that has been champion of the Big Sky six of the last nine years is struggling.
The Vikings have finished second to last in two tournaments already this spring season. Most recently, Portland State finished 11th of 12 teams in the Peg Barnard Invitational.
The team is very young this year, leaving Tiffany Schoning as the only senior on the team.
“It’s been a bit of a struggle,” Schoning said. “We lost a load of talent. We’re just really young and that’s going to be really hard to start out with. We are definitely seeing improvements as far as potential and fundamentals; the scores just haven’t quite come yet. We are hoping to see that change in the last tournaments of the season.”
Schoning and junior Britney Yada are leading the Vikings this season. Yada leads the team with a scoring average of 77.29 so far, and Schoning isn’t far behind at 77.41. Behind those two, this Portland State team is not very experienced. No one else on the team has more than one year for the Vikings.
Schoning sees herself as a leader on the team, being the only senior, but she has been nothing but disappointed with herself.
“Can I cuss?” Schoning said when asked about her play this season. “Not good. I have been extremely disappointed with my play this season. The fall wasn’t what I was looking for and the spring has been even worse. So that’s definitely tough.”
She said her play has been improving this quarter, however.
“The funny thing is so far this spring I have been really happy with where my game has been at. I have been really happy with where my putting is, where my chipping is and my swing. The score’s just haven’t been coming. That’s really difficult.”
If this season can’t be about winning the Big Sky Conference for the third year in a row and the fourth time in the last five years, it ends up being about Schoning and Yada helping the inexperienced golfers play up to their potential. Portland State has a lot of young talent including sophomores Samantha Webb, Loren Forney and Katie Ortman. The three sophomores competed in Portland State’s last tournament, the Fresno State Lexus Classic.
“A lot of stepping up is going to have to happen, with the fact that I am the only senior this year and Britney [Yada] is the only other junior,” Schoning said. “We’re the two leaders of the team. It will be interesting to follow how the team does after I leave and after Britney leaves.”
The Vikings’ next tournament, the Anteater Invitational, is on March 26 and 27 in Santa Margarita, Calif. The tournament is an all-day event.
