Hoosiers travel to Purdue for Lady Northern Invitational

Nearly three weeks have passed since the IU women’s golf team competed in a tournament but the Hoosiers will end their drought this weekend as they travel to West Lafayette to compete in the Lady Northern Invitational. 

Junior Anita Gahir has used the break to fine-tune her skills and said she thinks the team will benefit from increased practice time. 

“It gives us a chance to restart our season,” Gahir said. “We didn’t feel like we played that great in our first two tournaments, so with a two-week break in between it’s going to be nice to start fresh.”

Gahir finished a team-best fifth place in the team’s last tournament, the Badger Invitational. The Hoosiers placed sixth, despite being favored to finish second.
 
The invitational – hosted by Purdue – will provide the Hoosiers with a chance see each Big Ten team, something they have not had the opportunity to do this fall. 

Juniors Laura Nochta and Kellye Belcher, senior Amber Lindgren and sophomore transfer Cecilia Orevik will join Gahir. 

Although the Big Ten Championship is more than six months away, Gahir said she hopes to learn a lot from this experience. 

“It gives us a chance to see what we need to work on before we meet them all again next year at Big Tens,” she said. “It’s more or less our preview for that.”

Nochta said she is looking forward to the tournament and seeing friends from other teams in their conference.

“It’s been a good break, but I’m ready to get back to it,” she said. 

Nochta said she worked on her swing, short game and putting during the break. She said she feels confident she has improved in all three areas.

Nochta and the other veterans have helped the team build unity after adding several new players this year. Gahir said everyone seems to be developing a strong bond despite being anxious at the season’s beginning. 

“Everyone is a little less nervous right now,” Gahir said. “We know the team and the chemistry, and we get along really well, so I think it will just get better and better.”

One of those new players, Kokomo native freshman Sara Poppas said making the adjustment from high school to college golf wasn’t easy, but added she is having a great time on the team. 

“When I first came here I was really nervous,” she said.  “It’s a little tough to get used to it with a busy schedule, but after these first couple weeks I’ve gotten used to it, and I really love it.”

The Hoosiers will play 54 holes total, with 36 on Saturday and the remaining 18 on Sunday at the Kampen course at Purdue.