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Contact: Clark Teuscher, Sports Information Director, 630-637-5302
(article posted by Jeremy Rushing, Student Sports Information Assistant)

Oct. 21, 2013 - Many golfers, both competitive and recreational, can attest to the fact that losing control on the course can be disastrous for one's round.  Control is essential for a successful golfer and mandatory for anyone who plays the sport competitively.  North Central College women's golfer Alayna Dufour has become a master of control both on and off the golf course.

A senior, Alayna has been only been playing golf for eight years, a significantly-shorter amount of time than many golfers at the college level.  It was a last-minute decision for Alayna to take up golf, but one she's glad she made.
"I had taken tennis lessons and planned on going into high school playing tennis.  But, I decided I wanted to walk in the heat instead of run in it," recalls Alayna with a laugh.

Alayna can credit her ability to keep control on the course to what she does off of it.  She's a part of both CUAB (Cardinal Union Activities Board) and SAM (Student Athlete Mentors).  She has been balancing those activities with golf, classes,
and homework since her sophomore year.

Homecoming is this week at North Central, and Alayna has been the one in charge of setting up the entire week. 

"You have to coordinate times, locations, and who we want to bring into these events," she explains.  "There's a lot of planning, scheduling, coming in contact with people, buying supplies and ordering things."

The Rockford native admits this is an extremely stressful task to take on.  With that being said, Alayna can easily find the positives in putting together such a huge event.  Looking back on events she's coordinated in the past, she is no stranger to the good feelings after the event concludes.

"After the event you feel great about how successful it was," she says.  "It feels great to know you were responsible for something a lot of people enjoyed."

Being just as effective in the classroom as he has been on the golf course, the Boylan High School graduate has chosen marketing and management as her fields of study.  Not knowing what she wanted to study when she entered North Central, Alayna focused on what intrigued her and the decision became clear.

"I noticed that advertising was something that really popped out to me," she recalls.  "I've always been interested in what attracts people to advertisements."

On the course, the learning curve came early for Alayna.  In her freshman season she was one of North Central's representatives at the NCAA Division III National Championships.  She credits that experience to the success she's had over the rest of her career.

"It really helped me to open my eyes to see what we're capable of doing as a team," she says.  "It influenced me to push harder because it was an awesome experience and something I wanted to do again."

Looking back on her college career, Alayna has too many memorable moments floating through her head to choose just one as most memorable.  With the four years she has had at North Central, it's tough to blame her.

"There have been a lot of memorable moments; chip-ins, birdies, close shots.  It's all been really exciting."