The Amherst women’s golf team returns for a year of changes beginning with its new head coach, Elizabeth Davis. Davis comes to the Pioneer Valley with ample enthusiasm and prodigious playing experience. A 2015 graduate of the University of Mary-Hardin Baylor (UMHB), she helped lead the team to a 2013 NCAA Division III national team championship. Off the field, Davis finished at UMHB with a Master’s degree in Sports Administration.

Davis’ experience competing at the Division III level will be imperative as she balances her student-athletes throughout their fall and spring seasons.

Women’s golf has impressed on and off the field in recent history — placing four student-athletes on the Women’s Golf Coaches Association (WGCA) All-American Scholars squad during their 2015-2016 season. A total of 828 women’s collegiate golfers across NCAA Divisions I, II and III were recognized with this honor which requires a minimum cumulative GPA of 3.5. The Amherst quartet of Devyn Gardener ’16, Zoe Wong ’18, Maggie Schoeller ’19 and Kate Weiss ’19 led all NESCAC schools with their four honorees on the list.

The purple and white All-American Scholar contingent helped Amherst win the 2016 Jack Leaman Invitational for one of their most triumphant victories as Weiss carded a combined score of 161 and placed fifth overall, while Wong tied for eighth overall with a two-day total of 164. Weiss’s outstanding performance at the invitational and throughout their fall and spring seasons earned her second-team all-NESCAC honors for the 2015-2016 season.

Women’s golf will return seven players, while they lose two talented members of the class of 2016 in Sarah Ressler and Devyn Gardner. “Last spring I think we played our best golf in a while so I think we just want to build on that in the fall”, senior captain Jamie Gracie said.

The team is looking to be competetive within the NESCAC and among even the best of the Northeast competition, and they will have their first test to prove it on Sept. 17 at their first team tournament of the year. The women will travel to Wellesley College in Wellesley, Massachusetts to compete against some of the premier competition they will face in their fall and spring seasons.