Throughout the year, the Irish struggled to find their footing, yielding inconsistent results.
Irish head coach Susan Holt said, if there were one word to describe the season, she would summarize it as a “disappointment.”
“Overall the season was a disappointment based on the talent that we have,” Holt said. “We had a very competitive schedule that we just didn’t play through very well. With the schedule we had, we needed to be much more consistent from round to round than we were. We need to put up three solid rounds each tournament and we just didn’t get the job done on a consistent basis.”
Despite an overall lackluster season, Notre Dame did collect top-10 finishes at the Oklahoma Schooner Fall Classic, the Texas State Jim West Challenge Invite, the Texas Betsy Rawls Longhorn Invitational and the Wisconsin Westbrook Spring Invitational.
Holt said that, despite struggling with results in events overall, there were certain rounds that proved to be bright spots for the squad.
“The first round of the Jim West Challenge in Houston Texas we shot seven-under-par and were in second place,” Holt said. “The final round at the University of Texas tournament we shot eight-under-par, which was the low round of the tournament.”
The team will be losing two seniors this year in Jordan Ferreira and Janie Fineis. Ferreira finished her Notre Dame career ranked fifth in program history with a 75.66 career stroke average, while Fineis is a walk-on who has made her presence known over her four years.
“Jordan Ferreira has had a really solid career,” Holt said of her seniors. “She played in every tournament for four years and was a very consistent player for us over the span of her career. Her consistent scoring from day to day was key to our success over the last four years. ... Janie Fineis was a true walk on for us and was able to play in nine tournaments over the span of her four-year career. She was able to get some good tournament experience.”
The season for the team concluded with a ninth place finished at the ACC championship resulting from a team score of 901.
While the team failed to qualify for the NCAA tournament, sophomore Emma Albrecht qualified as an individual. Holt said she was thrilled about Albrecht’s selection.
“[I am] really happy for Emma and her selection to represent Notre Dame in the NCAA regional ... at Ohio State,” Holt said. “She works really hard on her game and had a great year. I am glad she has been recognized for it. I think she has played some of the most consistent golf of anyone in the country this spring. She had the best spring season stroke average (72.8) in program history. Her overall season stroke average (73.44) ranks second all-time.”
Albrecht finished the regional in a tie for 13th, the second-best NCAA regional finish in program history. Her three-over-par 219 left her two strokes behind Maddie Szeryk of Texas A&M, who filled the final spot for an individual to advance to the next round.
