The Clarke College women's golf program will begin a new era this season.  Longtime Crusader Head Coach Rick Arrington will take the golf coaching reins this year and will guide the program's fortunes.  Arrington inherits four players from last year's squad.
Back are senior Emy Kostka, of Maple Grove, Minn.; junior Rachel Stecklein, of Dubuque; and sophomores Renee Cooper, of Janesville, Wis., and Ashley Ihm, of Peosta, Iowa.

Ihm earned Midwest Collegiate Conference honorable mention all-conference honors last year and was named the recipient of the Crusaders' MVP Award.

Arrington's list of newcomers includes seniors Jessica Bacon, of Lena, Ill., Erin DiGangi, of Elmhurst, Ill., and Stephanie Eymann, of Rockton, Ill., and sophomores Alyssa Gantzert, of Dwight, Ill., and Jodi Muth, of Onalaska, Wisconsin.

"We currently have nine ladies on our roster for the upcoming season and I look forward to working with each of them," said Arrington. "The competition level should be up on the team and I look for some competitive rounds of golf to determine who represents Clarke College on the golf course."

Clarke will open its 2008 season at the Mount Mercy College Invitational on August 29 and will host its annual invitational on Sept. 22 at Thunder Hills Country Club.

Clarke will host the first two rounds of the 2008-09 MCC Tournament on Oct. 12-13 at Thunder Hills. The final two rounds of the MCC Tournament will be played in the spring of 2009.