After finishing third in the 2015 Summit League Championship, the South Dakota State women’s golf team was picked second in 2016 league coaches poll.
The women’s team received one first-place vote and 55 points from the league’s 10 head coaches. Last season, SDSU was picked fourth.
“We continue to be very excited about the improvement of our women’s program,” second-year Director of Golf Casey VanDamme said. “While the preseason poll doesn’t affect the conference results, it does provide an excellent opportunity for our players to reflect on where they have come from and give them confidence that they are headed in the right direction.”
Defending Summit League champion Denver (8 votes, 64 pts.) was selected the favorite to claim the 2016 league championship. Oral Roberts was third (51), North Dakota State fourth (43) and South Dakota (37) fifth. IUPUI (28) was picked sixth, Western Illinois (23) seventh, Omaha (12) eighth and Fort Wayne (11) ninth.
For the second year in a row, the Jackrabbits had a strong start to the season, finishing in the top five in three tournaments and the top 10 in four. Six of the seven Jacks finished the fall with scoring averages in the 70’s over 15 rounds and shaved three strokes off of last year’s team scoring average (304.27).
