DENVER – The MSU Denver women's golf team will seek to stay on course, so to speak, starting this week with the season-opening Swan Memorial at Todd Creek Golf Club.
 
The Roadrunners were an impressive fifth place after holding the first-day lead at the Rocky Mountain Athletic Conference Championships last spring, but have been picked to finish sixth this season in the league's preseason coaches poll.
 
"I was disappointed to be picked sixth, but we are going to use it as motivation," MSU Denver coach Stef Ferguson said. "This team is capable of a lot more than that, and we are going to go surprise the conference.
 
"My expectation is for the older players to be past the mistakes they made when they were younger and be smarter on the course, and overall for the team to keep working hard and pushing each other to keep getting better."
 
The returning players are Sydney Eye, Winnie Shaw, Isabel Botero and Courtney Lawler.
 
Eye has a career scoring average of 81.5 that would rank sixth in program history, but she needs to complete seven more rounds to qualify. Shaw ranks 12^th all-time at MSU Denver at 85.1, including a strong 81.4 average last season.
 
"Our returning players are doing really well," Ferguson said. "All of them worked really hard this summer, and those results are going to start to show. Winnie is going to have a great year. She has put in so much time working on all the right things, and I hope she can see this year what her potential really is."
 
Newcomers are true freshmen Antonella Blanco and Mackenzie Carpenter.
 
"I think the two freshmen are going to be solid off the bat," Ferguson said. "Antonella especially is capable of some low scores, so I'm excited to see what she can do. Mackenzie is a great competitor and works really hard, and she will make some great strides this year."
 
Like the RMAC Championships, the season-opening Swan will be a 54-hole event, including a 36-hole grind on Monday.
 
"It is an unusual format for DII," Ferguson said. "It will be a long first event. I wish it wasn't right out of the gate, but I do think the girls can use that second round to really learn from the first one and see what changes they can make."
 
The shotgun start is at 8 a.m. each day on the par-72, 6,038-yard course in Thornton, Colo.
 
"My expectation for the first tournament is for the girls to go out and play smart golf, focus on what they can control and do their best to eliminate big numbers," Ferguson said. "We have a team that is all capable of shooting in the 70s, so I'm excited to see what the girls can do."