Feb. 26, 2004

In its first year of Division I competition the women and men's golf teams will be looking at their combinations of youth and experience to guide them to a season of learning in 2004.

The women's team will be looking toward their experience to help them this season as this year's entire roster were all members of last year's squad that placed third at the NCAA Division II Championships. This year's team can look for leadership from their three returning seniors, with All-American Emily Russell heading the list. Russell returns from an excellent season where she not only placed third in the Division II NCAA Championships (the highest finish in school history), but was also the first Bear to earn NGCA All-America honors. Last season, Russell claimed eight medalist titles, set a school record for scoring average (77.9) and this past fall was in the top five in four out of five events; she also won the medalist title at the UMKC Kenneth Smith Classic to close the fall season.

Fellow senior Petra Lindgren is coming off a season where she placed in the top 12 in 11 of 13 total events and also excelled in the classroom as she was named to the CoSIDA Academic All-District team. Lindgren was 12th at the NCAA North Regional a season ago and was third in scoring average (85.0) this past fall. Rounding out the returning seniors is Jaclyn Chalfant.

"Our three seniors have been great contributors both on and off the course," said UNC head women's coach Jack Maughan, the 2003 North Region Coach of the Year who is entering his ninth season as coach. "We look for a top spring season to send them off in the proper manner."

UNC will also be looking for big things from sophomore Meagan Dahlberg who was second on the team in scoring average (82.3) in the fall and won both the Bear Spring and UNK Invitational in back-to-back starts last spring. Completing this year's team roster are a trio of juniors, Erin Bessey, Tara Greco, and Nicole Schoenfeld and redshirt freshman Kelley Newton.

"We got a good taste of Division I golf in the fall since four of our five tournaments were Division I fields," Maughan added. "We ended the fall on a good note in Kansas City and hope it continues in the spring."

Sophomore Michael Martin is the lone return from last season for the Bears.

The men's team will be looking to the talent of their transfer students and newcomers to kick off their season, as nine of the 10 roster members are new to the program this year. Junior transfer Chris Ellis (Gavilan C.C.) led the team scoring average (74.3) while sophomore transfer Dustin Mills (CS-Northridge) was right behind Ellis at 75.2 strokes per round. Ellis and Mills tied for 20th at the Air Force Falcon Invitational in the fall, one of four total events the team competed in that featured top-level Division I competition.

Sophomore Michael Martin, who led the team with a 77.8 scoring average last spring, is the only player returning from that squad. Colorado Christian transfer Jared Hungenberg and talented freshmen Kyle Burns, Nick Marino, Jon Stecher and Kyle Sullivan each gained experience playing with UNC in the fall.

Two more players, junior Tim Knight (who led Napa Valley to the California Community College Championship in 2003) and freshman Eric Higgins, joined the program at the beginning of the spring semester.

"We have a great opportunity to reach our Division I goals and we are not too far away from that right now," said first-year Director of Golf Wally Goodwin. "This entire group of athletes are all great young men who are determined to achieve team goals. The program is on a dramatic upswing; in the fall, we were 20 shots a round better than the team was last spring. We'll be better this spring and should be excellent in the fall of 2004."