By ELYSE N. HANSON

Crimson Staff Writer

For a lot of teams, losing only three players at the end of the year would mean almost nothing at all. For the Harvard women’s golf team, however, when three players departed at the end of last season, it meant losing almost half the roster.

And last year’s roster was not one that any golf coach would want to lose.

At the end of last season, the team was on a roll placing first in its last two tournaments, the Massachusetts State Championships and the Northeast Championships.

Driving the team’s success was the talent of the team’s seniors, J.J. Kang and captain Carrie Baizer. They helped the team adjust to their new coach, Kevin Rhoads, while providing guidance and leadership. Another one of last year’s top players, Katie Loncke, decided not to return to the team for her sophomore year.

She had won two individual medals that contributed to Harvard’s success last year. Losing her along with the seniors was cause for worry—losing three key players was going to be a difficult obstacle to overcome.

This past weekend, the Crimson proved that it could do even better than merely overcome its losses by setting a new team record. After a slow start on Saturday, Harvard had a record-breaking outing Sunday at the Dartmouth Invitational in Hanover, New Hampshire. The team broke the Crimson’s one-day total record by a whopping nine strokes, erasing any doubts about living up to last season’s end-of-the-year success. The entire team shot in the 70s—something that did not happen in any of last year’s tournaments.

Freshmen Ali Bode and Emily Balmert both performed well over the weekend. Bode tied for first place overall and recorded five birdies during the second day of competition.

“The second day the whole team played well and everyone shot in the 70s; it was great,” Bode said. “It was fun coming in first place but I was happier about the whole team playing well.”

The team dynamic is one reason why the Crimson played so well this weekend. On the first day, no one was playing as well as they knew they could, but everyone had fun and remained optimistic. The freshmen kept pace with the upperclassmen and helped the team rise from 8th to 3rd place.

Coach Kevin Rhoades was particularly excited about Bode’s outstanding performance.

“As a freshman, it was great for her to contribute that way,” he said.

If the team keeps getting better, and Bode says that’s one goal the whole team shares, it stands a good chance of surpassing last year’s success.

—Staff writer Elyse N. Hanson can be reached at ehanson@fas.harvard.edu.