University of South Carolina Upstate Athletics
Terrier Intercollegiate
Upstate Opens Women's Golf Season at Wofford Invitational
9/12/2011 12:00:00 AM | Women's Golf
Complete Release in PDF Format
Spartanburg, S.C. - The USC Upstate women's golf team opens the 2011-12 season Monday at the Wofford Invitational played at the Country Club of Spartanburg just across town from the Upstate campus. The tournament will be the first of five the Spartans will play this fall.
Upstate will join eight other teams in the nine-team field at the Wofford Invitational. In addition to the Spartans and Wofford, Appalachian State, The Citadel, Elon, Gardner-Webb, High Point, Newberry and Presbyterian College will tee it up in the tournament. The tournament will be a 36-hole event with 18 holes played each day. The Country Club of Spartanburg is a par-72 layout that plays a little more than 5,800 yards.
The Wofford Invitational is the first of five tournaments the Spartans will play this fall. Upstate will also play in the Great Smokies Intercollegiate (Sept. 19-20), Winthrop Invitational (Oct. 8-9), Rutgers Invitational (Oct. 14-15) and CFSC/Hatter Classic (Nov. 7-8).
Upstate and head coach Todd Lawton will send a young lineup into action to start the season at the Wofford Invitational. Lawton will send Rachel Lewis, Taylor Pleier, Amanda Hall, Brittany Lowe and Kristi Goodman into action this week. Lewis, Pleier and Hall led the Spartans throughout the 2010-11 season as freshmen. While still young as sophomores, they are also seasoned veterans. Lowe and Goodman are freshmen who come to the team with solid high school and junior golf backgrounds.
Lewis led Upstate with an 80.5 stroke average last year. She also played the majority of the year with a minor knee injury that caused her pain throughout competition rounds, but was not severe enough to remove her from the lineup. Hall ranked second with an 81.5 stroke average. Pleier was third on the squad with an 83.9 stroke average. Both Lewis and Hall claimed two top 10 individual finishes a year ago with Hall claiming the Spartans' only top five effort. Pleier also posted a top 10 finish on the year.
Lowe was a strong player at Dorman High School a year ago and helped lead the team to a fourth-place finish in the 4A state tournament. Goodman was a standout on the Easley High School squad that finished third in the 4A state tournament last year and finished second individually.
Upstate has also been buoyed by the return of Audrey Church to the program. Church was a founding member of the women's golf program at Upstate, playing from 2005-09. She graduated from Upstate and began working at Woddfin Ridge Country Club in Inman as an assistant professional and coordinates the Woodfin Ridge section of Spartanburg's First Tee program.
Youth Movement Continues
In 2010-11, the Upstate was led by three freshmen at the top of the lineup. Rachel Lewis led the team in stroke average and was followed by Amanda Hall and Taylor Pleier. The three claimed all five of Upstate's top 10 finishes on the year. The three are now sophomores and seasoned veterans based on the amount of time on the course they put in last year. However, a new crop of newcomers looks to infuse the team with talent and energy the way the three sophomores did a year ago. Kristi Goodman and Brittany Lowe qualified to compete in the Wofford Invitational, pitting two freshman into the lineup alongside the three sophomores. The youth movement continues for the Spartans.
Dynamic Dorman Duo
Upstate head coach Todd Lawton has built his golf programs at Upstate on the shoulders of players from the Palmetto state. That trend has continued with the addition of Brittany Lowe to the team this season. The freshman joins a familiar face in Taylor Pleier. Pleier and Lowe were teammates for five years at Dorman High School and have been reunited at Upstate. As Cavaliers, the two helped lead Dorman to three-straight second-place finishes in the 4A state tournament.
Lewis, Hall and Pleier Earn Top 10 Finishes
Rachel Lewis and Amanda Hall led Upstate with a pair of top 10 finishes last year, while Taylor Pleier also picked up a top 10 finish along the way. Combined, the players earned five top 10 finishes. In the year before the three joined the Upstate program, Upstate had just one top 10 finish in 2009-10.
Goodman, Lowe Solid High School Pedigrees
Upstate freshmen Kristi Goodman and Brittany Lowe certainly come into the program with strong backgrounds from their high school careers. Goodman is a three-time 4A All-State selection and finished second in the 2010 4A state tournament as a senior. She led her Easley High School squad to a third-place finish. Lowe was a mainstay in the lineup at Dorman High School, a program that has traditionally been one of the best in the state. She was a member of the Cavalier team that finished second three-straight years and was an All-State player as a senior.
