More often than not, in almost any season preview written about a team in any sport, the coach might say "we are young and likely will be a work in progress."

Rare is the veteran team that is loaded with experienced juniors and seniors.

While sometimes saying a team is young is just coach speak, in the case of the 2017-18 Hawai`i Hilo women's golf team, head coach Jim DeMello can say it with the paperwork to back it up. In fact, he does not have to say it. One look at the travel roster for the first road trip of the season bears witness.

Traveling to Utah and the Pacific Northwest next week representing the Vulcans will be four freshmen, two sophomores and one senior.

"We are young team," DeMello obliged. "We have some experience at the top of the line-up but in addition to that, the freshmen are going to play. They will get a quick study this coming week about what college golf life is like and they will have to make the adjustments."

The youngsters will travel this weekend to Utah for the Dixie State Invitational (Oct. 2-3), to Olympia, Wash. for the St. Martin's Invitational (Oct. 6-7) and to Bellingham for the Western Washington Intercollegiate (Oct. 9-10).

One reason that the Vulcans are a little bit younger is that senior Andi Igawa, UH Hilo's top golfer last season, will red-shirt this year to focus on academics. She will return as a fifth-year senior in 2018-19.

"It's not unusual for our players to do that because of academic load," DeMello said. "It's not always ideal timing, but overall it works out well."

That leaves senior Mariah Paiste as the lone player with a long Vulcan resume. Her first year in the program was in 2013-14 as a red-shirt. She has improved each season, shooting a career-best of 79 in one round of the Pacific West Championships last year, finishing 38^thoverall.

Two sophomores join Paiste as players with some collegiate experience. Kristeena Locke averaged 83.69 a round as a freshman last year and shot three rounds under 80 at the Rainbow Wahine Invitational. Keely Kitamura also has a year under her belt. Locke will begin the year at the number spot, Paiste at No. 2 and Kitamura at three.

"Kristeena averaged just a few strokes behind Andi last year," DeMello said. "Our returnees have been playing well this fall and I expect them to get better as the year goes on. The key will be how the others mature and adjust to college golf and play to the ability that they are capable of playing."

Enter the youngsters. Making the first mainland trip will be freshmen Dillyn Sakai, Rachel Soans, Kiri Oshiro and Kasumi Goto. Sophomore Kimberly Katayama will stay behind, as will Anela Dalton, who will red-shirt this season.

"It's a good freshman class," DeMello confirmed. "Dillyn and Kiri are from Kauai and grew up playing on a tough, excellent course. That really helps your skill level. Rachel averaged around 80 in high school. The key of course is the transition from high school golf to college golf, which is completely different."

And what a transition that is. In high school golf, you will play nine holes in the afternoon. In college, it's 18 holes in the morning on back-to-back days, and sometimes back-to-back-to-back days. Sometimes in colder weather. That's just for starters.

"It is a very large adjustment," DeMello explained. "You factor in the much longer season, the travel, the weather and the pressure. They are going to play a lot more golf than they have ever played before. It is a big adjustment mentally and physically."

The newcomers will get a taste of that immediately on this upcoming trip, playing in the dry air of Utah and the much cooler and possible damp climate in Washington. After nine rounds of golf in nine days (includes practice rounds at each tournament), the Vulcans will return home more seasoned and ready for their other fall tournament, the Rainbow Wahine Invitational on Oahu, Oct. 31-Nov. 1.

The rest of the season takes place in the spring, but the four fall tournaments certainly count for a lot.

"It all counts," said the only coach the program has ever known, having started the women's team in 2004. "How you do in the fall determines where you are ranked in the spring."

The top 12 teams in the region qualify for post-season play. That may sound like a lot, but there are six conferences in UH Hilo's region, spanning from Hawaii to the northwest, California, Colorado and Texas. Two of the conferences are from the Lone Star state, where Dallas Baptist came from, a team that finished second at the NCAA Championships in 2017.

"It's an extremely tough region," DeMello confirmed. "But that is our goal, to put ourselves in a position to have a shot at qualifying. It obviously depends on the progress all of our players make but it is an attainable goal."