CLEVELAND, Tenn.-In her second season of directing the Lee women's golf team, Coach Geandra Almeida has a talented squad returning that claimed the Gulf South Conference Tournament Championship last year.
'Yui', 'Pearl' Leading Top Five
The 2023 GSC Coach of the Year also has the GSC Player of Year, All-South Region and WGCA All-American Supuschaya "Yui" Srichantamit returning along with All-GSC performer Hannah Nall. Banthita "Pearl" Phoncharatkun, Emily Richie and Hope Harrell will join Srichantamit and Nall in opening the season as the top five.
The Lady Flames played in four tournaments during the fall, placing second in two and third in another. Coach Almeida was pleased with the way her team battled in the NCAA DII Regional Preview hosted by Lee University at the Cleveland Country Club. Nova Southeastern took first place and the Lady Flames were deadlocked with a strong Anderson South Carolina team for second place. Lee and the Cleveland Country Club will join to host the DII Regional on May 6-7.
Spring Play Opens With Low Tide
The Lady Flames are working to get ready to open spring play on February 27 when they travel to Charleston, S.C. for the Low Tide Invitational, which is hosted by Limestone University. Coach Almeida will take the team to Florida, back to South Carolina and then to North Georgia. The GSC Tournament is slated for April 22, followed by the NCAA South Regional, May 6 and the NCAA DII National Championship, May 21-25 in Winter Garden, Fla.
"Our goal is always to play a very strong schedule," said the coach. "All the events on our schedule will be competitive, but the event we will be playing in Florida will provide us with the opportunity to compete against some national power teams, such as the current No. 1 and No 2 ranked teams nationally."
Entire Schedule Very Competitive
Coach Almeida added, "At the conference level our biggest competitors are West Georgia, West Florida, and Montevallo. Now, when it comes to the Regional and National levels, I believe all the teams we play are extremely competitive."
The Lady Flames hosted the South Regional Preview back on September 18 at the Cleveland Country Club. Coach Almeida was asked if she sees this as a big steppingstone toward the DII Nationals which her team missed last season.
"Absolutely, only the top five best teams in the South Regional will qualify for the Nationals, but that is not an easy task as we all know that the South Regional is one of the strongest Regionals in the country.
CCC Gives Lady Flames Advantage?
"I believe playing at Cleveland Country Club gives us an advantage because we know the course very well, but I also know that to make it to the Nationals we need to be able to perform well at home against many of the nation's top-ranked teams."
Coach Almeida allowed, "It would be amazing to have another opportunity to compete for the National Championship. This is a very special team that is always willing to do what it takes to be as competitive as we can be.
"I am very proud of our progress and our team's effort to chase our goals this season. We have been working hard to not only make it to the Nationals, but to have a realistic chance to win on the big stage."
Players Have Individual, Team Goals
There is plenty of individual play in golf and Coach Almeida admits that every girl on the team has their personal goals set for the season.
"My job is to help them to be best prepared to go after those goals," she stressed. "We are a team that is extremely focused on our own progress, and we are constantly evaluating the areas we need to improve on.
"Since the fall season, we have set many team goals and I believe we are making the progress we expected. The first goal is to be ranked among the top eight teams nationally by the end of the spring season. The second goal is to win tournaments in the regular season.
"I truly believe this team can win every event we signed up for this spring. Ultimately, we want to be able to be very competitive for the post-season events and the biggest goal is to place ourselves in a position to fight for the national championship title," the coach explained in closing.
