Megan Woods, a sophomore, was the top golfer in qualifying rounds for UTC as it prepared to open the 2015-16 season. The Mocs will play the first 36 holes of Tennessee’s Mercedes-Benz Collegiate Championship at Cherokee Country Club in Knoxville today. The final round is Tuesday.Megan Woods wasn’t listening to music as she practiced. Headphones were absent.
But she still couldn’t hear anything.
The University of Tennessee at Chattanooga sophomore had her mind set on her next swing and crisp contact as she worked on wedge shots from 50 yards out.
Woods didn’t hear anybody approach. She jumped, startled someone could break her concentration on a perfect afternoon for golf last week at the UTC Player Development Complex.
Colette MurrayShe took a break and relaxed, for once.
“It’s a nice day,” she said as a couple of hawks flew overhead and puffy clouds occasionally shaded the afternoon sun.
The Mocs have been preparing all summer and into the school year for their 2015-16 season, which begins today in Tennessee’s Mercedes-Benz Collegiate Championship, a 54-hole tournament at Cherokee Country Club in Knoxville.
“We’ve been practicing hard and we’ve been playing a lot of golf, including seven qualifying rounds in 10 days,” said Woods, who reached the final 16 of the Tennessee Women’s Amateur Championship this summer. “We’ll be ready to go.”
Coach Colette Murray’s Mocs weren’t ready for their season to end last year with a runner-up finish to Furman in the Southern Conference tournament. Although the Mocs’ score would have been a tournament record in any other year, the Paladins beat them by 22 strokes and ended UTC’s five-year run of owning the conference tiara.
“We went there to win, but Furman played better than us,” sophomore Cris Perez said. “We are ready to beat them.”
The SoCon tournament isn’t until April, and it’s only September. But with a two-semester season, the Mocs can ensure they don’t have to win the SoCon tournament to prolong their season by raising their ranking through the fall and again in the spring. The top 50 teams are all but assured spots in NCAA regionals.
That’s one goal. Then comes winning the SoCon. Then dreams of winning a regional and an NCAA championship.
“Why not?” Woods asked with a giggle. “We can do better this year. We want our ranking higher to get us into regionals no matter what. I’m thinking top 30 or top 40.”
Murray, who has guided this team since its inception for the 2007-08 season, has loftier aspirations for her seven-player roster.
“We want to be in the top 25, ideally,” she said. “It would be something if we can get inside the top 50, because we haven’t been there in a few years. We don’t want to have to rely on winning conference to get into the postseason.”
As for UTC players, earning a spot on the traveling squad has been tough enough. Woods won qualifying and will be joined by Perez, senior Emily McLennan, freshman Emily San Juan and senior Sarah Dolmovich for 36 holes today.
“I feel like we’re better than we were last year, and we’re young,” Murray said. “There’s a different feeling around this team, a different attitude. They all want to win as a team, and they all want to win individually.
“If you have girls who want to do that, then you have a hungry team.”
Contact David Uchiyama at duchiyama@timesfreepress.com or 423-757-6484. Follow him at Twitter.com/UchiyamaCTFP