Surprise, surprise.
One week away from the first tournament of the 2000-01 women's golf season, the preseason national rankings were released yesterday with the Blue Devils near the top.
After jockeying alongside defending national champion Arizona as the top two teams last year, Duke will begin this season No. 3 behind the top-ranked Wildcats and Stanford.
"I think it's important for us to be in the top two or three," coach Dan Brooks said. "That means I've done my job and brought in good talent. But whether it's one, two, three or four, it doesn't make much difference in preseason rankings."
The theme of this season will likely be much like that of last season as the Blue Devils once again tee it up with a very talented team top-to-bottom, despite the loss of their top player from the year before. After spending last year trying to adapt without 1999 team leader Jenny Chuasiriporn, the Blue Devils will be doing the same this season following the departure of Beth Bauer, who chose to forego her final two years of college.
Even without Bauer's consistently stellar play, it shouldn't be too difficult for her former team to move on. While no other program can boast any more than two individuals in the nation's top 25, the Blue Devils have five, including four of the nation's top 16.
"The neat thing about it is we got that many in the top 25 and they're all between 12th and 25th," Brooks said. "This is not a one-horse team. They're all very good players and they're not being pulled along by one dominant player. That's what I like about this team."
Yet Duke finds itself third, not first and not even second. Based largely on last season's disappointing 14th-place finish at the NCAA Championships in May, that prediction is what the Blue Devils, as their captain said, will be trying to prove wrong.
"I think Arizona definitely deserves to be number one after their national championship and their great year, but I actually figured we'd be second," senior Kalen Anderson, the 12th ranked player in the nation, said. "I guess that's our poor finish at nationals last year, but in the whole scheme of things it really doesn't matter, it's where you finish in May."
Duke will be relying on its recent youth movement to challenge for the national championship once again. Joining returning veterans Candy Hannemann, Maria Garcia-Estrada, Kristina Engstrom and Anderson are two of the nation's most talented freshmen, both of whom are expected to challenge for the team's top spot.
Freshmen Leigh Anne Hardin and Virada Nirapathpongporn enter the upcoming season ranked 15th and 16th, respectively, in the nation after impeccable junior careers.
Although there might be some nerves when they walk onto the golf course one week from tomorrow for the annual NCAA Fall Preview, the freshmen haven't taken long to learn the team goals.
"I'm pretty happy we're ranked [third], but we'd like to be ranked No. 1 before the season is over," said Hardin, who added that she was very surprised at her individual ranking since she has never played a college tournament.
Before they can be No. 1, the Blue Devils will have to take out the Pac-10 teams that were so dominating at last season's Championships.
Arizona, in particular will be a marked opponent with possible vulnerabilities after losing national player of the year Jenna Daniels, Jill Gomric and national coach of the year Todd McCorkle, who took over the golf program at Georgia in June.
Duke will have its first chance to see the Wildcats without their top performers at the Fall Preview, but they will also be looking ahead to a date with them in Tucson at the Arizona Invitational.
"Any time we can get to compete with the west coast and especially the Pac-10 teams, that will help us out and give us a better idea of where we are and where we need to be," Anderson said.
Notes: In the individual rankings, Hannemann and Garcia-Estrada were chosen 13th and 22nd, respectively, in the nation.
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