The 2025 spring competition season is set for NIU women’s golf with their first event beginning Tuesday at the Bowling Green State University Women’s Intercollegiate. The Huskies enter the spring behind head coach Kim Kester, who is entering her 12th season.
“The fall was kind of evaluating and seeing what we need to work on and come up with a plan during the winter months to try to hit that hard to be ready to go at Bowling Green,” NIU women’s golf head coach Kim Kester said. “We saw some stuff that we really need to be working on and the ladies came back and I’ve never seen a team work so hard as they have done so far.”
NIU will be competing in the BGSU intercollegiate for the second year in a row, with hopes of improving on their fourth place finish from last year.
NIU finished last season with a third place finish at the 2024 Mid-American Conference Championship. The Huskies look to build on their top-3 finish at the 2025 MAC Championship slated for April 20 at Delaware Country Club in Muncie, Indiana.
Across five events in the fall the Huskies had a scoring average of 304.4. Their lowest round score was 288 in the second round of the Redbird Invitational on Sept. 9. NIU’s best placement also came at the Redbird Invitational, finishing tied for fifth place.
Freshman Alexa Ouellet was the Huskies leading golfer in the fall, as she averaged 75.9 strokes across the five tournaments. Ouellet’s best finish was a tie for 14th place finish at the Redbird Invitational.
Graduate student Emma Thorman – NIU’s second best golfer in the fall – touched on her and Ouellet’s relationship.
“Alexa (Ouellet) and I have a really unique relationship,” Thorman said. “Obviously, I’m a fifth year, she’s a younger freshman, so there’s a lot of age gap between us but I think she really challenges me just because of the raw talent that she (Ouellet) has. I mean, obviously she’s going to develop and get better throughout her career, but that kind of raw talent she has pushes me all the time.”
Thorman averaged 76.4 strokes across five tournaments last fall. Thorman’s best finish also came in the Redbird Invitational in which she tied for 33rd place.
Thorman noted her excitement toward the upcoming season.
“I think we’re all very excited, we’ve (the team) been practicing really well,” Thorman said. “I am excited to see what happens when we can hit off some grass.”
Senior Caroline Kent was the Huskies third best golfer, averaging 77.0 strokes over 5 tournaments in the fall. Kent’s best placement came in the Redbird Invitational where she finished tied for 20th.
After getting NIU’s second-best placement in the fall, freshman Dakota Tallent was the Huskies fourth best golfer. Tallent averaged 77.0 strokes across four tournaments, with her best placement coming at the Diane Thompson Invitational on Oct. 1, tying for 16th place.
Senior Jóhanna Lúðvíksdóttir rounded out the Huskies’ starting five in the fall, averaging 77.1 strokes across three tournaments. Lúðvíksdóttir’s best finish of the fall was a tie for 49th place finish at the Redbird Invitational.
The Huskies first spring event is an all-day event starting on Tuesday and ending on Wednesday at the Wigwam Golf Club-Blue Course in Litchfield Park, Arizona, at the BGSU Women’s Intercollegiate. Live scoring will be available through Scoreboard.
