CSUN Golf Team Returns but Starts at the Bottom

A women’s golf team representing Cal State Northridge played this week for the first time in 17 years, placing last among 13 teams in the Lumberjack Women’s Golf Invitational in Flagstaff, Ariz.

The Matadors shot a team total of 763 on Monday and Tuesday, finishing 133 strokes behind champion Weber State and 70 strokes behind 12th-place Gonzaga.

“We hoped for better,” Coach Carrie Leary said. “But we realize that this is just one of those years where we just have to get through it.”

Indeed, that should be Leary’s personal motto for the season.

The former player and assistant coach at UCLA has worked feverishly the past four months, trying to resurrect Northridge’s once-proud program.

It hasn’t been easy.

When Leary was hired in June, Northridge had no schedule and no players.

She managed to piece together the NCAA minimum--five players to compete in five fall tournaments.

Bonnie Murphy and Kelly Foster are freshman recruits. Senior Karen Johnston, sophomore Candice Kimbell and Soran Lim, a junior, already were Northridge students.

Leary hopes that with a season in the bank and some more time to recruit she will be able to attract high-quality golfers.

“It’s always been a three-year plan as far as recruiting,” she said. “This year it was kind of difficult to sell the team to recruits. Now we actually have a team for them to meet.”

Northridge had a top-notch program before the women’s team was dropped in 1979. From 1974-78, the Matadors did not place lower than second in the Women’s Tri-Conference Golf Assn. The conference included teams from UCLA, San Diego State, Long Beach State and Cal State Fullerton.

The Northridge team was reinstated this year to meet requirements for the school’s entry into the Big Sky Conference.

Northridge’s next competition is Sunday through Tuesday at the Big Sky Conference tournament in Spokane, Wash.