Championship Preview
The beginning is the end for women’s golf

Every team wants to be playing its best at the end of the season. The Muhlenberg women’s golf team is in the unique position of being able to guarantee that

Cush is the lone remaining player from the 2007 championship squad. She shot a career-best 96 in the first round of the CC Championships that year.

it will have its best showing of the season at this weekend’s Centennial Conference Championships.

For the second straight year, Muhlenberg is the host school for the CC Championships. Action tees off at Olde Homestead Golf Course in New Tripoli at 12 noon on both Saturday and Sunday.

For the Mules, it will be their first, only and last match of the season. They had several tournaments scheduled, but all were cancelled due to weather.

“We’re undefeated in regular-season play!” joked senior Hayley Cush.

“We haven’t had any competitive play,” she added, “but we’ve been practicing a lot. We had a really good practice round on Wednesday. It was good to get out there and talk some strategy.”

Last year, Gettysburg won its first CC championship by 10 strokes over McDaniel in the closest race for the trophy the league has seen in its eight years of sponsoring women’s golf. The Bullets return three of their top five golfers, while the Green Terror brings back its starting five intact.

Franklin & Marshall and Dickinson round out the tournament field along with Susquehanna, which joined the CC as an associate member in the sport of women’s golf. The Crusaders are ineligible for team or individual honors until 2010.

Muhlenberg finished fifth last year after winning the championship in 2007. Four of the Mules’ players are returning, with junior Sarah Mellick and sophomores Amy Venuto and Allison Siefert joining Cush.

“We all worked on our game, and everyone is really improved,” noted Cush. “We want to improve our standing.”

Ironically for Muhlenberg, weather will be an issue yet again, but in a different way. With forecasts calling for summer-like temperatures and the trees at Olde Homestead still working on getting their leaves back, the course figures to wear competitors down as the weekend progresses.

“It’s going to be a little bit of a challenge because none of us has played in this kind of weather,” said Cush. “We’ll just have to make sure we stay hydrated.”
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