Final Test

A year of training is about to be put to the test for UTRGV women’s golf. The culmination of its efforts will be the Western Athletic Conference tournament this weekend in Mission Hills, Kan.

Coach Risë Alexander will select her five-woman roster and take them to compete against golfers from the conference’s six universities.

One of those is expected to be Emma Mesta.

Mesta is in her sophomore season. A year ago as a freshman, Mesta was the surprising bright spot of the golf roster. She finished tied for 15th during the 2016 WAC tournament. Her freshman year also included an individual championship during the Grand Canyon University Invitational with a three round score of 221.

This year has been more of a struggle for the golfer from Torreon, Coahuila, Mexico. Her best finish was 11th back in October.

“I’m really trying to focus on my mental game,” Mesta said. “I really think last year I was mentally stronger. I like the pressure, it’s a challenge and I like the feeling. Last year, I was handling the pressure and being successful with it. This year, it’s kind [of] been off. I think that this year I have a lot more potential than last year, if you can believe it.”

Last year, she finished in 15th place in her first WAC tournament in Blaine, Wash.

Alexander is leading UTRGV into its third conference tournament under her direction. She was brought on as head coach in 2014 after 24 years with Oregon State University.

She outlined why playing a recent tournament in the same region would be an advantage.

“Obviously, it’s always windy in Kansas, and it’s always windy here, too, so for us it’s not as hard to navigate,” Alexander said. “It’s really good to have that familiarity with the types of grasses and elevation changes and just temperatures that we’re going to go back to [this] week.”

Golfers can expect high winds in the Kansas plains, but that’s nothing new to the golf roster, who are used to windy RGV courses.

Also heading to Kansas with the team is Jessica Young, a junior. She was UTRGV’s top performer in its last regular season tournament in Kansas City.

Her two-round score of 153 was only six strokes behind the leader and the Oregon native was in fifth place. She sputtered in her final round, dropping 10 spots but finishing 15th was still best among Vaqueras.

Young’s putting was what kept her score low last week during the Kansas City Shootout.

“Putting is so important because it’s a good way to make up strokes,” Young said. “It’s also really key to having a good score. It’s something that I work on a lot and coach just bought us a Putting Stick, which has helped me stay with it.”

The team hopes Michelle Moroles is fine to play after staying home ill during its last tournament.

Moroles had the Vaqueras’ best individual score of the season during the UTRGV Invitational. She finished tied for eighth with her three-round 229 during the home tournament.

The first round takes place Wednesday at the Indian Hills Country Club and will continue through Friday.