Quinnipiac Golf Looks to Capture Third Straight MAAC Championship
Courtesy: Rob Rasmussen | QU Athletics
April 20, 2023
The 2020s can be summed up in one word: dominant.
The Quinnipiac golf team is looking to win their third straight MAAC Championship this weekend in Lake Buena Vista, Fla., and have the squad to do it.
Coming off a MAAC Golfer of the Year performance in the 2021-22 season, the Bobcats will be looking to senior captain Leeyen Peralta for another big performance. Peralta’s last two MAAC Championships saw her placed first individually in 2022, and tied for second in 2021.
Peralta’s co-captain, Kaylee Sakoda, is another Bobcat to watch out for and placed second individually in 2022 and tied for sixth in 2021.
Outside of their performances on the court, it is the pair’s leadership that has elevated the bobcat’s performances all season.
“It’s very inspiring to see them,” sophomore Meg Yoshida said.
“They make me want to do more.”
The same thing goes for off the course as well in places like the classroom and even the weight room.
“We’re all pretty much the same height,” Yoshida said.
“I’ll look over and I’ll see them lifting triple the weight amount I am and I’m like ‘Wow I wonder if that’s going to happen to me next year.’”
Having more and more opportunities to compete all season, the younger Bobcats on this squad have been taking full advantage including Yoshida, who comes into the MAAC Championship in red-hot form.
The California native’s best performance this season came last week at the St. John’s Invitational where she placed twenty-first out of 66 competitors in the field. However, it isn’t the moments on the course that Yoshida remembers the most from this season.
“When we have that little bit of downtime after we finish rounds or in between, it’s fun to get together and talk or joke around,” Yoshida said.
“That’s where I learned the most about my teammates.”
“It’s really funny because I learned more about my teammates in the last year than I did from the past ten years.”
With teams across all sports on campus having success in both the MAAC and NCAA this year, head coach John O’Connor’s squad wants to add to the school’s historic year and know exactly how to do it.
“We’re going to be able to reach that same level,” Yoshida said.
“We did it last year and the year before that, so it’s like we’re definitely going to be able to do it this year as well.”
The Bobcats will tee off in the hunt to three-peat for a MAAC Championship at Disney’s Palm Spring Golf Course starting Friday, April 21.
