W. Golf optimistic about new season, freshman recruits

The climb has been a precipitous one for the young Penn women's golf team.

Since its inception only four years ago, the Quakers have shown marked improvement.

Penn enters the new season coming off the best year in the program's short existence. Last season, the Quakers had their highest finish ever in a tournament -- third at the Rutgers Invitational in the Fall -- and came in fourth place at the Ivy League Championship in the spring.

And this year -- in the words of second-year head coach Jane Cusanes -- Penn hopes to once again "take it up a notch."

The Quakers are carrying over six veteran golfers to the squad, including captain and senior standout Stacy Kress, who returned to her usual form in the spring after struggling with back problems in the fall 2001.

Backing up Kress are sophomores Melissa Aylor and Lauren Edwards, who are both looking exceptionally strong entering the fall season. Juniors Laura Dolan, Jessica Penzell, and Valerie Wong also return.

With a young but very experienced returning roster, the Quakers are happy to add three strong freshman golfers -- Jenna Skorupa, Kim Thompson and Lexie Wukich.

Thompson is excited to join the Quakers and shares in Penn's goal of improvement at every tournament. Penn hopes it will be playing its best when the most pivotal portion of its schedule -- the Ivy League tournaments -- comes along at the season's end.

The season kicks off this weekend at the Yale Invitational, where Penn will be competing against 20 other teams. The top five scorers from the team this week qualify to play in the upcoming tournament.

While the Quakers hope to vie for the league title, Cusanes believes Penn will face a challenging test.

"Princeton and Yale are the teams to beat this year," she said.

Still, Cusanes believes her team can make a run at the Tigers and Elis both this weekend and throughout its tournament schedule.

"Our goal this year is to give Yale and Princeton notice that we are coming up," she said.

Also on the Fall schedule are the Rutgers Invitational, the Princeton Invitational and the newly-added Georgetown Invitational. Later on in the spring, Penn will contend in the William and Mary Invitational and the Ivy League Tournament.

With high standards for the upcoming season, Penn has been practicing hard in the early weeks.

Cusanes praises the excellent work ethic of her team and attributes this to the Quakers rapid recent improvement. She hopes that the squad's great effort will pay off in the end.

The Quakers have been practicing on both courses at the Philadelphia Cricket Club to have variety in course play, as they prepare for the Yale tournament this weekend.

With only one senior and a plethora of young talent, the Penn women's golf team finds itself with a capable mix that can only push the team to work harder.

As a team that has a shown a flair for setting records in recent years, Penn hopes its run towards unprecedented heights will continue this season.

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