BEREA, OHIO – The Baldwin Wallace University women's golf team is hoping to earn its third Ohio Athletic Conference championship in the last five years and its third trip to the NCAA Division III Tournament in that same time span. The only difference this season is that the Yellow Jacket program has a new coach in 1987 BW graduate John Kapusta.
"The BW program remains the same," said Kapusta, who took over for Alyson Campbell. "We have a solid corp group returning and our goals are still to have fun, be competitive and win both the OAC and NCAA Division III titles. I am looking forward to working with the young women in our program, and we, as a team, are looking forward to getting started."
Kapusta is no stranger to BW women's golf. His daughter, Rebecca, who graduated last spring, was a four-year starter, three-time All-OAC and Academic All-OAC student-athlete who also earned NGCA (National Golf Coaches Association) Scholar-Athlete honors twice.
"I am familiar with the program and the four upperclassmen who return," said Kapusta. "We return four very solid players and we have a freshman and a transfer joining the program. We are always looking for young women who love the game of golf and want to compete at the collegiate level."
Losing Rebecca Kapusta and fellow graduate and two-time CAPITAL ONE Academic All-American Brooke Hamilton will be tough to replace, but Kapusta returns three two-time All-OAC players in seniors Emilee Woolf (Ravenna), Miranda Cunningham (Dayton/Dayton Christian) and Rebecca Jones (Hilliard/Darby). He also returns sophomore Laura Vidmar (Willoughby/South), who had a strong first season of collegiate golf.
Woolf, Cunningham and Jones have led BW to 13 tournaments titles, including two OAC crowns, and a 212-58 overall record. Vidmar was a part of last season's 63-13 slate that included four tourney championships.
Woolf has been BW's No.1 player most of the past three-plus seasons. Last season, she averaged a career-low 83.68 strokes in 10 tournaments and 15.5 rounds of 18 holes, including two career-low-tying rounds of 77. That followed a season where she led the team with an 84.64 stroke average. Five times in her career, she has shot a 77. Twice she has been a tourney medalist and twice OAC Player of the Week. She enters her senior season with a 84.47 career stroke average.
Cunningham alternated between the No.2 and No.3 player last season and averaged 83.67 strokes per round to rank third. She also had a career-low round of 77 and played in eight tourneys and 15.5 rounds. Cunningham did miss two tournaments last spring due to a health issue. Two years ago, she was second on the team in stroke average at 85.29. Cunningham enters her senior season with a 85.78 stroke average in 32 tourneys and 59.5 total rounds. She also has been an OAC Player of the Week three times.
Jones also had her best season as a collegian a year ago when she averaged 86.06 strokes to rank fifth. She shot a season-low 80 on two separate occassions. Two seasons ago, Jones averaged 88.21 strokes to also rank fifth, and had a career-low 79 in the spring of 2012. She enters her senior season with an 88.37 stroke average in 34 tournaments and in 61.5 rounds.
Vidmar played in all 10 tournaments and 17.5 rounds and averaged 93.60 strokes per round with a career-low of 84. She, incoming freshman Olivia Pacheco (Canfield) and junior Stephanie Wohl (Middleburg Heights) will battle for the No.4 through No.6 spots in the lineup. In collegiate golf, a team consists of five student-athletes with the top four scores counting toward the team total.
"We are expecting excellent competition," said Kapusta. "We have a pretty good idea of what Emilee, Miranda and Rebecca are capable of doing, and Laura played well as a freshman. If all four veterans continue to improve and we get good play from Olivia and Stephanie, I feel we have the talent and ability to compete for another OAC title.
"Women's golf in the Ohio Athletic Conference is extremely competitive," said Kapusta. "Every year, schools like Otterbein, Ohio Northern, Mount Union and others are competitive. We look forward to that challenge."
BW will play in four fall tournaments and opens its season on August 31 when it will play in the first of the two-day Olivet College Tournament in Olivet, Michigan. BW also will play in events at Denison University (Sept. 7-8), The College of Wooster (Sept. 21-22) and at Wittenberg University (Oct. 12-13). The season will continue in the spring with the annual Spring Break Trip (last year, BW travelled to Phoenix, Arizona for spring break), five-to-six more tournaments and culminating at the 2014 OAC Championship Tournament. The winner of the OAC tourney receives the league's automatic berth into the 2014 NCAA Division III National Tournament.
FOR MORE BW SPORTS INFORMATION, please contact Sports Information Director Kevin Ruple by telephone at 440-826-2327 or 5906 and e-mail at kruple@bw.edu. or Assistant SID Jeff Miller by phone at 440-826-2780 and email at jefmille@bw.edu Fans can access the latest BW athletics information at www.BWyellowjackets.com and we invite you to join us on Facebook at www.facebook.com/bwyellowjackets and Twitter at http://twitter.com/bwathletics.
