The Fresno State women’s golf team — established in 2004 — enters Year 9 under new coach Emily Milberger, the program’s second head coach.
The program, itself, is young. Former coach Angie Cates-Moore was its first and only head coach before stepping down this summer.
The roster is experienced and has “seasoning,” Milberger said, after coming off a third-place finish in last year’s Mountain West Conference Championships. Each Bulldog in the lineup made a top-20 individual finish in the 40-player field.
This season, Fresno State returns four seniors, a junior and a sophomore from a team that was 14 strokes away from winning the conference crown.
“We have two strong players who are returning with some really good resumes from the past couple of years in Hannah [Sodersten] and Madchen [Ly], but I’m excited as well,” Milberger said. “The senior class seems to be pretty determined on making it a good go-around for the final season.”
“We really have a lot of experience. It’s really exciting to have that type of seasoning in our program, and it’s fun to have the newcomers, as well.”
Ly, a junior, and Sodersten, a sophomore, are local products who had successful prep careers at Clovis High and Clovis East High, respectively.
Both are expected to anchor a lineup that will also feature newcomer freshmen Sandra Livas — who has competed internationally — and Laura Scrivner.
The four seniors and the experience on the roster, Milberger said, are key for the Bulldogs, who have unfinished business in the postseason.
“We definitely are setting our sights on winning the Mountain West Championship,” Milberger said. “We finished third last year, so we’ve got a lot of excitement off of that.
“This is their final chapter here as Bulldogs, and I think they really want to cap it off with some good hardware.”
Milberger served as head coach at Montana for two seasons prior to coming to Fresno State. She played collegiately at Oklahoma from 2001-05, where she was a four-time National Golf Coaches Association Academic All-American.