Following a season where the Lopers returned to regionals after a one-year absence, the UNK golf team returns this spring, loaded with experience. The Lopers finished ninth at the NCAA regionals last season, and the expectation is to be back again in May.
With plenty of returning golfers, the team had solid results in the fall despite losing a teammate to injury.
“We were fully healthy for one tournament in the fall,” said Shawn Rodehorst, UNK golf coach. “I’d say we performed pretty well, beat some top 30, 40 teams in the country.”
The Lopers lost four-time All-MIAA selection Juliana Botero after last spring, when she finished the season on a torn ACL. Despite the injury, Botero and returning senior Emmie Rhude broke the 54-hole program record with 217 strokes to place 18th at regionals.
This year, another top international golfer, freshman Pella Broms of Linöping, Sweden, finished third in her first meet at UNK, only to tear her ACL shortly after.
The expectation, Rodehorst said, is for Broms to return later this month and be ready in plenty of time for the postseason.
Returning alongside Rhude are juniors Claire Berquist, Liz Lyons and Sofia Wildeman, plus sophomore Calie Dockter.
“We’re all at a point where we know that we’re capable of doing really well,” Lyons said. “So, it’s kind of like fitting all those pieces together so that we actually can, and it is really exciting to have a team that’s young and still really in it.”
Having to battle Nebraska weather typically adds a level of complexity to the team’s practice schedule, with golf courses closed at the beginning of the season.
“That’s kind of a disadvantage for us against a lot of the other teams,” Lyons said. “Since we’re the northernmost school in our conference, all the other teams get to practice outside and hit on grass, practice their short game and stuff. We don’t get to.”
Luckily, Kearney had nice enough weather in February, allowing UNK to be out on the fairways even if they are unable to use the full course.
“We’re just figuring out how to learn to hit off grass again because we haven’t in however many months,” Berquist said. “I definitely think that that’ll be a big advantage compared to last spring.”
Over the next two months, the Lopers will make trips to Oklahoma and Arizona, as well as Kansas and Wayne, as they prepare for the conference tournament at the end of April, before regionals the first week in May.
“We had a really good fall, but we also know we can do better than what we did,” Lyons said. “We’re capable of so much more.”
