After a second place finish by the Seattle University women’s golf team, you would expect head coach Marc Chandonnet to be ecstatic; or at least happy. However, his first few sentences came with a noticeable sense
of disappointment.
“We got off to a slow start,” Chandonnet said. “New Mexico State got a hole-in-one right off the bat, and our girls started to lose focus.”
Then again, this is Division 1 athletics and no one plays to finish second. Many people would think that second place was good enough; a mistake on their part, not his. Disappointment is all too common in athletics, but disappointment is not a negative thing. It is not a bad thing. For an athlete, disappointment turns into a drive to be better; and that drive can be the difference between first and second place. This is a very good thing.
An athlete that does not have the drive to get better is like a car with no engine. It will roll along with enough people to push it, but it will never work on its own. This idea, this drive, pushes Chandonnet and his team to get better each day.
For those of you that may not know, Seattle U has a very good women’s golf team and over this past weekend, they took second place at the WAC Women’s Golf Championship. The team came into the tournament with high hopes of an overall victory but, despite repeating their second place finish from last year, played three quality rounds of golf.
“They all played their hearts out this weekend,” Marc said. “There is a lot of pressure that comes with playing golf at a high level.”
As Chandonnet and the women’s golf team look towards next year, the prospects are even higher and a first place finish is clearly the goal. Although losing two seniors from the overall team, all five girls on the travel squad will be coming back next year.
With four juniors and a freshman on the squad, the earlier disappointment was replaced by excitement as he looked towards the future of his team. Seattle University has not won the WAC Championship in the past 20 years and Chandonnet is clearly hungry for that to change.
In his last comments, Chandonnet put it best.
“New Mexico State has won the past three years and we’re getting tired of it,” he said.
The tournament took place at beautiful Semiahmoo Country Club starting on Friday and ended on Sunday. Five women represented Seattle U, one of whom stood out from the crowd.
Junior Dorsey Addicks ended her weekend tied for second after shooting just 3-over-par on the tournament.
“[Addicks] played amazing,” Chandonnet said. “I knew she was going to be a good player, but I didn’t know she would be playing at the level she is now.”
Addicks’ second round 71 matched the tournament’s lowest individual round score, and put her into first place after two rounds. Despite shooting a third round 75, Dorsey ended the tournament in very good position, only two strokes behind the leader.
Junior Ellen Brantberg made a top 10 finish after shooting 10-over-par for the tournament. Her second day 73 put her into a three-way tie for the seventh spot. Junior Jamie Huo ended the weekend at 12-over-par, in 12th position. Junior Alexus Song ended at 17-over-par, in 17th position. Freshman Yen Ting Wong ended at 22-over-par, in 25th position.
Addicks, along with her teammate Song, also made first team All-WAC as announced at the end of the weekend.
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