Montana opens fall schedule in Anaconda

The Montana women's golf team will open its four-tournament fall schedule next week when the Grizzlies travel down the road to Anaconda for the Battle at Old Works.

Hosted by Montana State, the 10-team tournament will be played on Monday and Tuesday at Old Works Golf Club, with 36 holes the opening day, 18 the second.

Play is scheduled to commence at 9 a.m. on Monday, 8:30 a.m. on Tuesday.

Half of the field will be made up of teams from the Big Sky Conference -- Montana and Montana State, plus Eastern Washington, Idaho State and Weber State.

Three teams will be traveling from California: Cal Poly, CSU Bakersfield and UC Irvine.

Also back for the third time will be North Dakota State, which won the first title in 2017 and tied for first last September with Eastern Washington, with the Eagles winning a playoff.

"It's a good field, a strong field. I'm excited," said coach Kris Nord, now in his third fall coaching the Griz golf team after decades spent coaching the Montana tennis teams.

"Two years ago I had a couple seniors I could rely on to guide me through the season, because I was kind of thrown into it and not really in golf mode at that point. Now I feel very comfortable in what I'm looking for and what I'm trying to do and what I expect from the kids."

"Kids" is an apt descriptor in this case. Eight of Nord's 10 players are either freshmen or sophomores. His lone upperclassmen are senior Teigan Avery and junior Faith D'Ortenzio.

All 10 will be competing at Old Works.

Nord brought in four freshmen a year ago and three of them -- Kylie Esh (77.6), Allison Sobol (80.0) and Brooklyn Van Bebber (80.4) -- would rank in the top five in season scoring average, along with the graduated Baylee Barckley (76.6) and D'Ortenzio (79.7).

"The freshmen last year were great. They really played well most of the time. They all had a day or two here or there that was tough, but they handled it well through the season," said Nord. "I expect good things from them."

With Barckley, who won the first Battle at Old Works, in 2017, gone from the lineup, that leaves Esh as the Grizzlies' top returning scorer. She finished her freshman season on a high, playing eight of her final nine rounds at 78 or better, five at 74 or better.

She shot rounds of 74 and 73 at the Big Sky Conference Championship in April and finished as Montana's top scorer, tying for 24th overall.

Esh led the Grizzlies as well at last year's Battle at Old Works, shooting rounds of 78, 79 and 76 to tie for 13th in her collegiate debut.

That would put her on the short list of players to watch on Monday and Tuesday, but after being sidelined most of the summer with an injury, she's trying to keep her expectations in perspective.

"Winning is always the goal whenever you go to a tournament, but I need to kind of lower my expectations for this first one because I took so much time off," she said.

"I've been playing well, but I haven't competed in a tournament in maybe three months, and it's so different when you're playing in a tournament."

Adds Nord, "She's been shooting the scores. She broke 70 at the (Missoula) Country Club this fall and has been keeping everything in the low 70s. She's had maybe one bad round out of 12, which is really good.

"She should be thinking about getting in the top five (after 36 holes) and then going out and winning the thing (on Tuesday)."

Four freshmen arrive to give Montana, at 10 players, its deepest team in years. Joining the program as first-year players are Margaret Harmon (Geneva, Ill.), Tricia Joyce (Butte, Mont.), Jessica Ponce (Beaverton, Ore.) and Emmy Sundby (Rapid City, S.D.).

"The thing I'm probably most interested in is seeing how our new kids handle the tournament," said Nord. "The first collegiate golf experience can be tough.

"Mostly I'd like to see everyone improve from last year. I feel like we didn't score well last year. We'll be looking to make tiny steps of improvement all through this fall, and it starts at Old Works."

Montana will have a two-week break between its first and second tournaments, the latter of which will be the Rose City Collegiate in Aurora, Ore.

Montana will then have a quick turnaround, hosting the Griz Match Play Challenge at the Missoula Country Club on Oct. 4-5.

The fall schedule will conclude at the Pat Lesser Harbottle Invitational in Lakewood, Wash., a tournament Montana will be playing for the sixth straight year.

"We have a real strong range of average scores from 77 to 81," said Nord. "Kylie is sitting down at 73. She's been playing lights-out. I'm hoping she can continue that and set the tone.

"We just need the rest of them to keep getting better. I'm excited. I just hope we can improve a heck of a lot on what we did last year, because we have the talent to do it."

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Players Mentioned

Teigan Avery

Baylee Barckley

Faith D'Ortenzio

Kylie Esh

Margaret Harmon

Tricia Joyce

Jessica Ponce

Allison Sobol

Emmy Sundby

Brooklyn Van Bebber

University of Montana Athletics