Resilience Has Fueled State’s Championship Chase
May 15, 2024 | Women's Golf, Joel Coleman
STARKVILLE – It was back in the fall when Mississippi State's women's golfers went to their coaching staff with clear goals outlined. The Bulldogs weren't asked to provide the feedback. They weren't prodded to provide an answer to a question. They were simply driven.
"They came to us unprovoked and told us, 'This is what we want to accomplish and we're not going to let anything get in the way of that,'" head coach Charlie Ewing recounted. "Their actions then followed that."
Indeed, they have. Through ups, through downs and all points in between, the Bulldogs have once again put themselves back on college golf's biggest and brightest stage.
State tees off in the NCAA Championship at the Omni La Costa Resort and Spa in Carlsbad, California, on Friday. It marks the third straight season the Dawgs will be in the event, making MSU one of only 14 teams in the nation to hit the links to play for it all in each of the last three years.
But how did this particular group find its way back in the most important tournament of the year? Ewing said there was a key ingredient.
"I'm really proud and really impressed with this team's resilience," Ewing said. "We've been challenged a lot this year in a lot of different ways. People always talk about how failure is your best opportunity to grow, and this team has done a really, really good job of putting that to practice."
Given recent events, you might not recall this year's Bulldogs didn't travel a smooth road. Fresh on the mind is State's Southeastern Conference Tournament championship and the heroics of freshman Avery Weed to clinch the crown. Of course, prior to that, Julia Lopez Ramirez had already claimed her second-straight SEC individual title.
Last week, a fourth-place finish in the Bermuda Run Regional put State back in the NCAA Championship as the good times rolled on. But all this was fueled by the lessons learned previously.
"There were plenty of times during the year where winning championships felt out of reach just because you were looking through the narrow lens of recency – judging what happened yesterday as an indicator of what would happen in the future," Ewing said.
Yes, the season featured strong showings, including second-place finishes in the fall at The Blessings Intercollegiate and at State's home event, The Ally. However, spring wasn't as kind to MSU.
"We essentially get swept in our matches at [the Therese Hession Regional Challenge in] Palos Verdes [California] to open the spring, and we go to the Bahamas [at the Nexus Collegiate Invitational] and finish at the middle of the pack," Ewing said. "At the Darius Rucker [Intercollegiate in South Carolina], we have two really good days where we shot under par when hardly any teams were having days under par…But our second round was 19-under par. So, the consistency piece was missing all along the way."
Nevertheless, State wouldn't be denied. The Bulldogs' mission remained the same and their confidence in themselves was never shaken.
It's largely a credit to the maturity of this group. Ramirez, Izzy Pellot, Chiara Horder and Surapa Janthamunee are not only all incredibly talented, but all have also battled through the peaks and valleys of collegiate golf before and seen what resiliency can do for you. All four veterans are making return trips to the NCAA Championship.
And while Weed is new to the NCAA Championship, the poise and performance the rookie delivered to lock down the SEC Tourney title proved she won't be intimidated out West.
"We feel like we have a team that's very ready for this type of stage," Ewing said. "We have a mature team that can handle performing on the biggest of stages."
Ewing's confidence comes from knowing his group and seeing how they've operated day in and day out. They're not shaken. They're never fooled. They won't be defined by a bad shot or a bad round, nor will they be satisfied with one good hole or great day.
"They just all know what it takes to perform well," Ewing said. "That's not dictated by the type of tournament we're playing in. The formula just stays the same. What we do works, and that doesn't matter if we're just going out on a social round on a Sunday afternoon with Mom and Dad, or we're playing for a national championship or conference championship. It doesn't change. We're going to lean on that this week."
Of course, they'll almost assuredly have to lean back on their trademark resiliency, too. It's carried the Bulldogs this far, and it has the potential to carry them even farther.
"No matter the struggles or the successes we've experienced along the way, the commitment to being the best we could possibly be, all of that has stayed consistent with this team and I'm just really proud of them for keeping their minds that consistent regardless of circumstances," Ewing said.
Players Mentioned
