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By all measures, the first half of UL's 2008-09 golf season was a success, and a solid start to the Ragin' Cajuns' new era under first-year coach Theo Sliman.
But it's the spring season that matters most. That's when the Cajuns played their way into 10 NCAA Tournament appearances in now-retired coach Bob Bass' 18 years, and Sliman knows the spring is where it counts.
"I know we're a more experienced team after the first semester," Sliman said, "but we have to take the same approach and continue where we left off. We had a great fall, but we've still got a long season ahead of us."
<center><p><a href="http://www.theadvertiser.com/article/20090204/SPORTS/902040316/1006" target="_blank">The rest of the story</a>
Dan McDonald •
danmcdonald@cox.net • February 4, 2009
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For Sliman, the season actually began over the weekend when he was a first-time participant in the Golf Coaches Association of America convention in Orlando. Bass, who still sits on a couple of that group's national committees, accompanied Sliman to the meetings.
"It was a great week," Sliman said. "It was a chance to meet a lot of people and do some networking. Coach Bass knows everybody there, so he pretty much took me under his wing and introduced me to a lot of people."
That meeting now over, the actual spring season begins this weekend when UL takes part in the Mardi Gras Invitational, a first-time event hosted by UNO at the stellar TPC Louisiana course in Avondale. A 15-team field includes Sun Belt rivals UL Monroe and Troy, state foes McNeese, Nicholls State and Southeastern La., solid regional teams Southern Miss, Texas-San Antonio, and West Florida along with Campbell, Kennesaw State, Mercer, Santa Clara and St. Mary's (Calif.) along with the host Privateers.
The hosts are the highest-ranked team in the meet at No. 76 on Golfstat's national rankings, but the Ragin' Cajuns are also in the top 100 at No. 96 entering the fall season. That's right on the cusp of getting into the NCAA's, and a good showing this weekend would help since five other field teams are ranked between 100-120.
Teams will play two rounds on Monday and a final 18 holes on Tuesday, both at 8 a.m.
"It's a good way for us to get started," said Sliman, whose team had three top-five finishes and one sixth place in five fall tournaments. "They (UNO) have wanted to put on a good tournament like this for a while but Katrina pushed that back."
The Cajuns finished second to Sam Houston State in UTSA's Roadrunner Intercollegiate to finish the fall season, after tying for top honors at North Texas' Mean Green Invitational and finishing tied for fifth against a solid field at the Squire Creek Invitational. UL also finished sixth at the Kansas Invitational.
It was a solid effort for a roster that includes only two seniors and four freshmen - two of them playing in the regular lineup. First-timers Andrew Noto of Luling-Hahnville and Philipp Fendt of Vienna, Austria, both ranked in the top five scorers, with Noto carrying a 73.9 average.
"The maturity level of a couple of our freshmen is nice, but it wasn't a surprise," Sliman said. "It was nice to see them contribute like that. But everybody on this team knows their roles, and they know what we have to do in order for us to compete at the level we want. Everybody has to take care of their own role, from the seniors that lead to the guys that don't qualify and aren't traveling that have to push and fight for spots."
The unquestioned leader of that group is Canadian Devin Carrey, who won the Mean Green meet for the second time to open his fall and finished off with a runner-up finish at the Roadrunner. Fellow senior Dustin Petit also had a top-10 finish at the Roadrunner.
"The team's going to be successful when you have your number one and two guys finish like that," Sliman said. "That's the type of leadership we expect from Devin. He's taken that role on, addressed it, and he's ready physically and mentally for that challenge of leadership."
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