Bulldog Bites

Spring season coaches ready to hopscotch past winter

The Gonzaga University spring sport seasons are less than two months away, and a number of the teams are coming off very impressive fall seasons, leaving coaches eager to start the new season.

Gonzaga's baseball program is looking to build off its record-setting 2009 team that captured its inaugural WCC Regular and Championship Series titles and earned a trip to the NCAA Tournament. This year's squad will be made up of a highly touted group of newcomers along a number of veteran returners that played huge parts in last season's success.

"I think this year's team is very talented," said seventh-year head coach and 2009 WCC Coach of the Year Mark Machtolf. "We are currently trying to get all of our new players to understand what it takes to win at this level.  I believe we have a good nucleus of returning leadership but with the fifteen new players, we are going to be very young and we will look for the veteran players to lead the way."

The men's golf team added two top recruits to its balanced roster that also features two returning All-WCC selections from a year ago. The biggest challenge facing the Zags entering 2010 will just being able to find time to get out on the course due to the winter weather. Gonzaga finished fifth at the always competitive Kauai Collegiate Invite in Hawaii to close out a very solid fall season and has the team excited for the spring.

"We'll be taking our most consistent team in the past 10 years into the spring season," commented 11- year head coach Robert Gray. "Because our spring schedule begins in February, we'll have just over a month to get ready so we'll need to get the most out of our time back from semester break. Once we get each player out on the course to sure up some little issues, we'll be able to post some solid team finishes this spring."

Gonzaga's women's golf team is coming off a solid fall season. The young group of Zags also will be faced with the challenge of finding outside practice time during the winter weather. The Bulldogs will be led by a pair of juniors along with one of the country's most impressive freshmen in Victoria Fallgren, who posted a school-record round of 67 en route to winning her first collegiate tournament in September.

"I see our team's work ethic and experience finally being enough to excel in tournaments," said third-year head coach Brad Rickel. "We have continued to work hard to get our young players some experience over the last couple years and with the addition of two very solid freshmen I feel our talent level is the best Gonzaga has ever had."

The men's tennis team completed its fall season on a high note as a pair of Zags each won their respective Singles Consolation brackets. The 2010 Bulldogs will be a young group but will be led by an accomplished senior in Roman Dojcak, a two-time All-WCC selection. The Zags will also have two players returning after each posted 10 wins in singles play last season and welcome one of the top ranked recruits in the country, Levin Guillermo from southern California.

"We closed out the fall season with some great results and are looking forward to carrying over this momentum into the spring season," said fifth-year head coach Peter MacDonald. "Our conference will be even tougher this year because every team has improved. Our guys have continued to work hard in the limited time they have been able to spend on a court and we are very excited about doing some big things this season."

The women's tennis team returns two All-WCC selections from year ago and welcomes in four newcomers including three freshmen. Similar to the golf programs, getting out and playing is always tough in a sport that focuses on repetition. This young group of Zags is looking to get out and compete against some of the top teams on the West Coast in 2010.

"We have a young team that has worked very hard this off-season," commented sixth-year head coach D.J. Gurule. "We are going to be very balanced this season and the hardest part will be finding the best lineup that given day to give us a chance to win. This group of girls has proven that they can work together as a team. We have a lot of talent and I think we are ready to have a break-out season."

The men's and women's rowing programs are also looking toward spring season as each team put together an outstanding fall season. On the men's side, the Varsity 8+ is looking to build off one its best seasons in program history last spring, finishing 16th in the country to mark the Zags highest ever finish at the Intercollegiate Rowing Association Regatta. The Bulldogs Second Varsity 8+ made its first-ever appearance at the same regatta last year.

"Putting three eights in the national championships and finishing 16^th in the country as a team last year was a great accomplishment for us," commented head men's crew coach Dan Gehn. "Our main challenge this year will be molding another set of competitive boats after the departure of a large and experienced senior class. This year we have a young but a very talented group with the only question being ‘Can they gel and get back to the national championships?' "

The women's crew team hopes to continue its dominating streak built off a record-setting year last year after capturing its 12 WCC title in 13 years and winning earning gold in four events at the WIRA Championships, a program-best.

"We have a motivated team going into winter training and hopefully that will show when we get back from winter break and into the spring," said women's head coach Melissa Flint. "We lost a lot of seniors from last year's team and have a relatively young team this year. Our schedule is again going to be highly competitive which will force our young group to stay focused throughout the year."

 -  Robert Alworthy