Women's Golf | 9/5/2024 3:40:00 PM

Utah Tech women's golf opens the 2024-25 season this upcoming Sunday-through-Tuesday at the Utah Valley Wolverine Invitational. The three-day, 54-hole event will be played at the par-72, 6,206-yard TalonsCove Golf Club in Saratoga Springs, Utah.

The 10-team tournament field will include the Trailblazers and fellow WAC members UVU and Southern Utah, along with CS Bakersfield, CSUN, Idaho State, Lamar, Santa Clara, UC Irvine and UC Riverside. 

HEAD COACH LINDSEY STUCKI: Lindsey Stucki (Dixie State, 2007) begins her ninth season as head coach of the Trailblazer women's golf program. 
            Last season, Coach Stucki led the Trailblazers to eight top-10 showings in 10 team events, highlighted by a fifth-place finish as hosts of its Utah Tech Trailblazer Invitational in February, and a seventh-place showing at the Western Athletic Conference Championships.
            In addition, all seven of her players went on to earn 2023-24 Academic All-WAC, and WGCA Academic All-America Scholars honors, while three others were named to the College Sports Communicators Academic All-District team.  
            During her tenure as Utah Tech head coach, Stucki has guided the Blazers to a runner-up Rocky Mountain Athletic Conference team finish in 2019, and to consecutive fifth-place finishes at the Pacific West Conference Championships in 2017 and 2018. 
            Prior to her arrival at Utah Tech, she served as assistant golf professional at the Sand Hollow Golf Resort, and as an LPGA assistant teaching professional for the City of St. George. Stucki also spent two seasons on the coaching staff of the Hurricane High School girl's golf program, including a one-year stint as the Tigers' head coach in the 2010-11 season. 
            Coach Stucki, who is an apprentice member of the LPGA T&CP, played collegiately at the University of Central Arkansas, where she helped lead the Bears to six-consecutive team tournament wins and a Gulf South Conference championship.
            Coach Stucki is assisted this season by first-year assistant coach Caylyn Ponich. Ponich joins the Trailblazer program after completing her four-year collegiate playing career at Utah Valley.
 
THIS YEAR'S SQUAD: The 2024-25 Trailblazer roster features a healthy mix of young veteran collegiate experience, along with a trio of talented freshmen. 
            Utah Tech welcomed back four golfers who played in at least seven team events last season, including juniors Jenna Anderson and Jane Olson. Anderson played in Blazers' first seven events last year before injury ended her season. Anderson finished the year with a 77.48 stroke average in 21 competitive rounds.
            Olson got the starting nod in all ten team events and finished fourth on the team with a 77.14 scoring average in 29 rounds, which included a collegiate-low 3-under 69 in round one at the Western Michigan event last February. 
            The Trailblazers also returned sophomore Mia Cesarek, who finished third on team with a 76.55 stroke average in seven events. Cesarek's freshman campaign was highlighted by a record-breaking performance in last spring's Montana State, at which she broke Utah Tech's 18-hole (-6) and 36-hole (-5) program scoring records en route to her first collegiate top-5 finish (t-5^th; -2 214). 
            Fellow sophomore Samantha Phelan is back after a solid freshman campaign, during which she played in eight team events and carded a 77.30 scoring average, and a season-best t-14^th showing at last fall's Charlotte Invitational. 
Coach Stucki added four newcomers to this year's squad, including junior Weber State transfer Samira Salinas (McAllen, Texas) and freshmen Riley Doherty (Scottsdale, Ariz.), Maria Purroy Galan (Benahavis, Spain), and Gabrielle Roznicki (Calgary, Alberta, Canada).
            Salinas played two seasons for the Wildcat program, this after she enjoyed a decorated prep career at McAllen (TX) High School, while Doherty was part of one state title winning team and four districts championships at Cactus Shadows (AZ) HS.
            Roznicki brought several years of experience in Canadian national competition with her to Utah Tech, and was part of Ernest Manning High School's first girls golf team during her senior season last year.
            Meanwhile Purroy Galan played several years on the European amateur girl's golf circuit and will look to make an immediate impact for the Trailblazers.

THIS WEEK'S LINE-UP: Heading into UVU's season-opening tourney, Cesarek, Anderson, Phelan, Purroy Galan, and Olson will be the five who will tee it up for Utah Tech. 

HEAD COACH LINDSEY STUCKI ON THE SEASON OPENER: "We are feeling really pumped to start our season off in Utah. Most of our girls have had some experience playing at TalonsCove, which will be helpful, and the course is a great test of golf. We have had some very competitive qualifying rounds leading up to this event and I can't wait to see what this team can do. It's a great field for us and I expect us to be competitive."

2024-25 EVENT SCHEDULE: Utah Tech will play in nine regular season events, including five tournaments this fall. Following the UVU Classic, the Trailblazers return to northern Utah to play at the Weber State Kelsey Chugg Inv'l on Sept. 16-17, at the Wolf Creek Resort Golf Course in Eden.
            The Trailblazers will dial long distance for their two October events, starting with a trip to the "Windy City" to play at the Loyola Chicago Parkinson Family Invite on Oct. 7-8. Utah Tech will then hop on over to the Islands for the Hawai'i Rainbow Wahine Invitational at Kapolei Golf Club on Oct. 21-23, before closing the fall with a tri-match play event vs. both CSUN and CSU Bakersfield on Nov. 6, at Sandpiper Golf Club in Goleta, Calif.
Utah Tech will play three of its four 2025 spring season events in Arizona, with another UVU-hosted event, the Utah Valley Wigwam Preview on Feb. 2-4, at The Wigwam Resort Golf Club in Litchfield Park.
            The Trailblazers head back to the desert three weeks later for the Western Michigan Rio Verde Inv'l at the Rio Verde CC on Feb. 23-25, before returning home to play in the Southern Utah-hosted Pizza Hut Lady Thunderbird Invitational, which will be played on March 7-9 at Sunbrook Golf Course. 
            Utah Tech will close the regular season at the Montana State Bobcat Desert Classic in Goodyear (April 7-8). 
            The 2025 Western Athletic Conference Women's Golf Championships will be played April 14-16, at The Wigwam Resort Golf Club.