With the fall season behind them and inexperience no longer a viable excuse, the ladies of the OU women’s golf team are looking to find steadier play as a team and a consistent rotation to balance the strong play the Sooners displayed in the fall half of their schedule.

With a new leader in first-year head coach Veronique Drouin, expectations may have been low for the Sooners heading into their season-opener. But OU did anything but disappoint as the team started off its fall schedule with a top-five finish at the rain-shortened Texas A&M "Mo" Morial tournament in Bryan, Texas.

Drouin said the showing in Texas was a good start for a young group, but the tournament was not the best indicator because teams were able to get in only one round of play before weather rained out the final two rounds of the 54-hole event.

But consistency issues plagued the team in its following two tournaments as Oklahoma faced tougher competition in fields featuring multiple top-25 teams. OU ended up leaving the tournaments in New Mexico and Illinois with 15th-place and 13th-place showings, respectively.

“We start really, really well if you look at the scores,” Drouin said. “We have really good scores on the front nine, then we get to the back nine, and we struggle a little bit coming in down the stretch. Those things are little factors we have to work on with nervousness.”

In their final competition of the fall, the Sooners tied for seventh at the Alamo Invitational in San Antonio, Texas, which was shortened to only 18 holes due to thunderstorms. But the top-10 result came in a field that featured No. 10 Tennessee and No. 23 Texas A&M among the contenders.

As Oklahoma tees off its season in Puerto Rico, the Sooners will look toward a pair of upperclassmen to help the team contend in the seven competitions currently slated for the spring schedule.

The Sooners are led by junior Ellen Mueller, who leads the team with a 72.63 scoring average, nearly four strokes below what the Evansville, Ind., native averaged during her sophomore year. In the four tournaments OU competed in during the fall, Mueller notched two top-five finishes, as well as a top-10 and top-15 finish.

“It’s funny … throughout the summer in the individual tournaments I played, I didn’t feel like I was performing to my best level,” Mueller said. “I just kept feeling that it was going to turn around and anytime now I was going to shoot really well.”

Drouin said Mueller's success comes from a variety of factors, including the junior's composure and consistency on the golf course in competition.

“Ellen is very consistent. She hits it down the middle, hits it on the greens. She’s that kind of player that just makes the golf game look easy,” Drouin said.

According to the Golfweek/Sagarin rankings, Mueller is listed as the No. 30 individual golfer in the nation.

Besides Mueller, sophomore Brooke Collins was the only other Sooner to compete in every tournament during the fall. Collins opened the season with an eighth-place finish in the season-opener before earning a top-50 finish in the fall finale.

Drouin also expects senior Chelsey Collins to provide leadership to the young group as the Louisville, Colo., native will play her first tourney of the season in Puerto Rico.

“You can tell [Chelsey] worked really hard,” Drouin said. “She’s the kind of player who really wants to contribute with the team. I think she’s going to be an instrumental player coming down the stretch here this spring.”

Freshman Taylor Schmidt and sophomore Kelly Short produced strong results in the final two tournaments as Schmidt recorded two top-30 finishes and Short came away with a top-20 and top-50 finish to finish the fall season.

“I’m very competitive. I want to do everything I can to make this team the best it can be,” Schmidt said. “We have been working hard and I think this team has enough drive and heart that we’ll be fine going into the season.”

With a solid group of veterans and a surging class of newcomers, stronger results and conference honors are just some of the expectations loaded onto the team this year.

Also, for the first time since 1998 OU will host the Big 12 Women’s Golf Championship in April at the Jimmie Austin OU Golf Course.

Mueller said although golf is not one of the top sports in the Big 12, the fact has not stopped the team from practicing and improving its performance.

“We have been working hard and we’re just excited for the Big 12 to come to Norman and hopefully people will be able to come out and watch us,” Mueller said.

OU will kick off the spring half of its schedule Sunday at the Lady Puerto Rico Classic in Rio Grande, Puerto Rico.