The Aberdeen Roncalli girls’ golf team returns several key players to its roster as the Cavaliers look to build off of last season.

First year head coach Jon Murdy said he has a couple of key expectations for his team which begins play this week.

“The biggest thing is I want the girls to have as much fun as they possibly can while playing golf,” Murdy said. “Also, at the same time, I want the girls to get better throughout the season.”

The Cavaliers return three players who qualified for the state golf tournament last season, including freshman Claire Crawford, who tied for sixth at state. Sophomore Margaret Anderson placed 39th and freshman Grace Seyer tied for 56th place. While Murdy said those three will be key for the Cavaliers, there are some others to look out for this spring.

“Reese Henrich is gonna start playing this year again. She took last year off,” Murdy said. “Morgan Helms is gonna play again this year, and then there’s a couple of young girls that we’ll see what happens when we get out to the golf course and see how they’re playing and go from there.”

Murdy also noted that freshman Ava Danielson will also be a golfer to watch for the Cavaliers.

As far as the schedule, Murdy is just concerned with getting his team out on the course. He noted that the Cavaliers will need to travel south to be able to play in as many meets as they can.

“With the weather that we have up in this area, we’re gonna have to travel down to the Sioux Falls-Mitchell area as many times as we possibly can because they don’t have snow down there,” Murdy said.

The Cavaliers travel to Elk Point-Jefferson for a meet on Thursday, and Murdy is hopeful that there will be opportunities for meets in the Aberdeen area after that.

“We’re supposed to have the Hub City Girls’ Invite on May 4 over at Lee Park, so hopefully we can still have it, but we just don’t know,” Murdy said.

The weather has also impacted the way Roncalli has practiced, as the team has had to rely on other technology to get swings in.

“At the golf shop at Lee Park, we were able to get a simulator this past winter, and so the girls have been practicing on that a couple of times a week, just to kind of help get ready for us to go outside,” Murdy said. “Hopefully, (this) week maybe we’ll be able to hit some chip shots outside just to see the ball up in the air.”

Murdy, who also serves as the Roncalli boys’ golf, will be marking his first season coaching the girls’ golf team. He says there aren’t many differences between coaching boys’ and girls’ golf.

“There’s always going to be a difference between boys and girls, but a golf swing is a golf swing,” Murdy said. “It doesn’t matter if you’re a boy or a girl, a man or a woman, a golf swing is a golf swing.”

Murdy also mentioned that a big difference is in the delivery of the swing, noting that every person’s swing is different.

At the end of the day, Murdy wants the kids to have fun and enjoy the experience this season. “Just like I tell the boys,” Murdy said, “everything comes down to the state tournament to where let’s have as much fun as we can and see what happens.”