Upstate's Moment In The Sun...The A-Sun Championships
4/12/2009 12:00:00 AM | Women's Golf
April 12, 2009
Spartanburg, S.C. - When the USC Upstate women's golf team tees it up at the A-Sun Championships Monday at Victoria Hills Golf Club in DeLand, Fla., the event will be a culmination of four years of hard work and dedication for a number of young women on the Spartans' team.
Julie Miller and Audrey Church will be the only two members of the team playing in the tournament who were founding members of the women's golf team at Upstate. Miller and Church, along with current teammates Anna Hastings and Jessica Wofford, were a part of the first women's golf team at the University. Head coach Todd Lawton gathered together a team of individuals determined to not only be the first players to ever play women's golf at Upstate, but to leave their marks on the program. And, leave their marks they have.
"I remember when we all came in we all kind of clicked," said Miller, a native of Jennatte, Pa. "We didn't know anyone else, we didn't know anything about Spartanburg or the area and we all just stuck together. It's kind of funny because I started out first semester sharing a room with Anna Hastings and now we are graduating and she is moving into my house. I got a job in Spartanburg and Anna is moving in with me. We've stayed close and remained good friends, not only teammates."
"It has been crazy the last four years. We've played so many different places, played so many awesome courses and met so many different people. It's hard to think that I'm here for a scholarship and it's what I have to be doing, but it isn't even like that. It's just fun. I can't imagine not playing golf here."
The establishment of the women's golf program was announced in 2004 in conjunction with the announcement that Lawton would also be charged with reestablishing the men's golf program that had been dormant for 14 years and which had never competed in the NCAA. But, it was the women's golf program that claimed Upstate golf firsts - the first individual tournament championship when Trish Randall won the St. Andrews Invitational in the program's second tournament ever in the fall of 2005 and the first ever team tournament championship at the Anderson Invitational to open the 2006-07 season.
Year two brought together several changes in the women's golf program. Randall departed for other opportunities and a pair of standout golfers transferred to Upstate from Coastal Carolina, twin sisters Richelle and Richia Wedzik. The Wedzik sisters quickly became central figures in the program and helped lead the Spartans to its first team championship at the Anderson Invitational in 2006. The Wedziks and Miller formed a strong core for which the team has involved around for the last three years.
While Upstate began to carve out a niche in women's golf on the Division II level, it also was a program that had little to play for other than pride and respect. Despite the fact that a few Peach Belt Conference schools offered women's golf, the league did not conduct the sport as a championship sport. And, with Upstate participating in the same region as some of the nation's strongest DII programs in Florida, the Spartans had little to no chance of advancing into NCAA Regional play. Season accomplishments were all that awaited the Spartans for two years.
The move to NCAA Division I and the Atlantic Sun Conference did not change the fact that the women's golf program had to motivate itself each tournament throughout the year without the carrot of postseason play available to the first-year DI program in 2007-08. The NCAA mandates that schools moving to Division I classification serve as provisional members for five years, including an exploratory season which is typically served during the final year of membership in the former athletic classification. For Upstate, that was the 2006-07 season in DII. As a result, the provisional schools are unable to compete in NCAA Championship events.
The NCAA initially took the stance that institutions making the transition to DI would not be eligible to play in the conference tournaments in order to protect each conference's automatic bid to the NCAA Regionals. Upstate was again relegated to regular season play.
But, that changed in the spring of 2008 when the NCAA made a unilateral ruling that in some sports, including golf, provisional schools would be allowed to compete in conference championships. If a provisional school won the conference tournament, the automatic bid to the NCAA Regionals would go to the highest-finishing team eligible to compete in postseason play. After three years of playing a regular season schedule the Upstate women's golf team finally gets its chance to make its mark in a postseason tournament starting Monday.
"It's exciting to actually get to a place where we can compare ourselves with other schools," said Upstate head coach Todd Lawton. "People want to see where we stand with the other conference schools. Even in Division II we were ranked 13th or 15th, but couldn't get a regional bid. So, it's exciting to get an opportunity for postseason play."
"I think it's great (being able to play in the A-Sun Championships)," said Miller, a native of Jenannette, Pa. "Four of our five starters are seniors and it means a lot to all of us. We know that if we win we can't move on past that. It's understandable, but at the same time we are like, let's just go and play and give it our best and see where we fit in with the rest of the conference.
"We have played Victoria Hills a couple times before. We all know how to play the course and play it well and usually we've played pretty well out there. Hopefully everything will all click."
Miller has been a stalwart in the lineup since stepping to the tee at the Anderson Invitational to play in the first tournament ever in the fall of 2005. No Upstate player has played as many rounds as she has, 81 to be exact. No Upstate player has as many top-20 career finishes as she does, 18 to be exact. And, she is tied for the all-time record with 11 top-10 finishes and three top-5 finishes. While she has been the glue that has held the team together for four years, she has arguably saved her best golf for her final year.
"I am nervous because I want to play well since it is my last college tournament, probably the last tournament I'll ever play in," said Miller. "Today on the range, coach was down there working with us and I turned to him and said that I don't think I have ever hit the ball this well. So, it's definitely starting to click and come around."
Miller has been in a friendly battle with Richelle Wedzik for the team lead in stroke average for the better part of 2008-09. Richelle, who topped the team as a sophomore with a 77.8 stroke average, currently tops the Spartans this season with an 80.2 stroke average. Miller is just 0.4 strokes behind at 80.6. But, it has been her play this spring that has truly made her stand out in her final year.
Miller leads the team with three top-20 finishes, two top-10 finishes and one top-5 finish on the year. She has turned in both of her top-10 finishes this spring, including a fifth-place effort at the Larry Nelson Collegiate Invitational in Upstate's final tune-up prior to the A-Sun Championships. The fifth-place finish is the third-best finish of her career.
"Julie has worked hard to get better for each event," said Lawton. "She has balanced leadership and everything that's not golf related so well. It's a huge thing when you know the end is coming, but she has worked harder than ever and wants to do well. She has had some really strong individual rounds this year and is hitting the ball really well. It's just really a nice thing to see."
While Miller has been the catalyst of the team this spring and, really, throughout her career, Richelle Wedzik has been headline grabber for the last three seasons. As was stated before, she led the team in stroke average as a sophomore and again tops the team this season. She owns three of the top-four season stroke averages in school history and is the program's career leader with a 79.4 average. She also owns a program best .715 head-to-head winning percentage. She ranks second all-time with 16 top-20 finishes and is tied with Miller for the top spot with 11 top-10 and three top-5 results in her career.
Richia Wedzik has also been a key contributor throughout her career at Upstate. She finished third behind Richelle and Miller in stroke average in 2006-07 and topped the Spartans last year with a 79.7 average. The effort was the second-lowest season stroke average in the history of the program. Her 11 career top-20 individual finishes and nine top-10 efforts trail only Miller and Richelle on the all-time list, while she is tied with Miller and Richelle with three top-5 finishes.
"Richelle and Richia have given us such a good balance," said Lawton. "There is no doubt the contributions overall that the seniors have given us. I don't think they think they stepped in as sophomores, Richelle and Richia feel like they have been here from the beginning."
Audrey Church and Jennifer Judge will join Miller and the Wedziks as the five Spartans competing in the A-Sun Championships. Church has been a solid four-player for the Spartans and has turned in some strong performances. She owns three top-10 finishes and one top-5 effort in her career. Judge has infused the team with energy this spring. She transferred to Upstate from Southern Miss after the first semester and has played in five events this spring. She owns two top-20 finishes, including a sixth-place effort in the Larry Nelson Collegiate Invitational on March 31 in the Spartans' final tune-up prior to the A-Sun Championships. Judge has finished as the second-lowest Spartan in all five tournaments she has played this spring.
"All five players contribute each round," said Lawton. "This is a course where we play really well. Richia has played really well in tournaments here. I am excited to see what we can do. It's good because we will play 18 holes per day. It won't be play36 holes, go to sleep, play another 18 and go home. You can play your round and concentrate on making adjustments for the next round."
Miller, the Wedziks, Church and Judge will carry the hopes of the women's golf program into the A-Sun Championships. Teammates Jessica Wofford and Anna Hastings, as seniors on the team, along with sophomores Johanna Ebenhag and Summer Wall and freshman Natalie Buch, will anxiously watch the Spartan Five in the A-Sun Championships.
"It's been great watching them (the seniors) grow," said Lawton. "I think they are closer together now than they ever were. They root for each other and want to excel not only individually, but as a team. It's been neat to see them grow in ways more than just on the golf course. They perform exceptionally well in the classroom and have become outstanding people."
Already used to setting new standards and being benchmarks for the program, the Upstate women's golf team is set to embark on yet another first for the program. For seniors Miller, Richelle Wedzik, Richia Wedzik and Audrey Church, it is a culmination of years of dedication and sacrifice in establishing a foundation for which future Spartans golfers will stand. If the future players in the program give as much as those four have given, along with Hastings and Wofford, the future of Upstate women's golf is sure to be bright.
"Looking at schools, I wanted a smaller school and I saw who was offering me a scholarship," said Miller. "Now thinking about it, the whole reason why I came here was because it was the first year for the team. My dad kept saying that I was going to get to play, it was an opportunity and I was going to be the first person to play for USC Upstate. It's true and it's been awesome the last four years."
