The UW women’s golf team is looking to build on last year’s ninth-place finish at the Pac-10 Championships as the team returns seven golfers and adds three solid freshmen this year.

This year’s squad is young, but will not be lacking leadership because lone senior Molly Boyle is experienced enough to handle the role, coach Mary Lou Mulflur said.

“[Boyle] is our senior and I couldn’t ask for a better leader,” she said. “She is phenomenal. She gets along with everybody. She keeps everybody relaxed. She’s really level-headed,”

Mulflur’s goals for this year include winning, first and foremost, and she said her team members understand what they must do to accomplish just that.

“The biggest thing we need to do is just keep our eye on the things we can control,” she said. “If we keep our eye on that and don’t get distracted by other things, we’ll be fine.”

One of the newcomers who will be trying to stay focused is Sadena Parks. Parks, a high school state champion in 2006 and 2008 (runner-up in 2007), looks to bring success to Washington.

Coach Mulflur said the single word that best describes her team both academically and athletically is “ambition.”

“They have lofty goals, and that’s what you want in a team,” she said.

After finishing seventh in both the conference and National Championships, men’s coach Matt Thurmond is keeping the bar high for this year’s men’s golf team.

“We want to win the Pac-10 Championship and we want to win the National Championship,” Thurmond said. “If you set a goal lower than that, it shows you’re not playing to win, which is something I’m never going to do.”

Sharing his coach’s mindset is last year’s leading scorer for the Dawgs, Nick Taylor, who has been awarded the title of captain for this year’s campaign, a role rarely gifted by Coach Thurmond.

“It’s a very big deal for us to give out the title of team captain,” Thurmond said. “We haven’t had it for the last couple years, but we’re excited to have one in Nick Taylor.”

“Tough” is the word Coach Thurmond chose to represent his team, which is very fitting for a group that finished strong in its first event of the year, moving up two spots in the final day to place third at the Gopher Invite on Sept. 14.

Reach reporter Ben Foutz at sports@dailyuw.com.