Upstate Readies for A-Sun Women's Golf Championship
4/12/2014 12:00:00 AM | Women's Golf
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Spartanburg, S.C. – The USC Upstate women's golf team is set to open the A-Sun Championship on a course it has played two tournaments on within the last calendar year when it tees off at the Pine Lakes Course at the Jekyll Island Golf Resort on the coast of Georgia Monday.
Upstate and the nine other A-Sun schools will battle for the A-Sun Championship in a 54-hole tournament with 18 holes played each day Monday through Wednesday, April 14-16. Pine Lakes plays at 5,838 yards and is a par-72 layout. The Spartans finished eighth in last year's Championship with rounds of 311, 316 and 307 for a 934 total score. The effort allowed the squad to finish with a 322.04 stroke average to break the all-time program record. Former standout Taylor Barnes led the Spartans in the tournament with a tie for 16th.
The field for the A-Sun Championship is strong with three teams ranked in the Top 100 and seven in the Top 150 in the latest Golfstat national ranking. Defending champion ETSU tops the list at No. 45 and is followed by No. 60 Mercer, No. 78 Kennesaw State, No. 103 North Florida, No. 125 Jacksonville, No. 132 Stetson, No. 148 Florida Gulf Coast, No. 192 Lipscomb, No. 205 Upstate and No. 223 Northern Kentucky.
"I feel good about the time our players have put into preparing for the conference championship," said Upstate head coach Todd Lawton. "Each one has now had experience in difficult weather conditions and lots of wind during this spring season. I am hopeful for good weather but think we can excel either way. We need to do our best around the greens."
Lawton will send the same lineup he has used throughout the spring into action in the A-Sun Championship. He will send sophomore Malika Allie, senior Amanda Hall, freshman Allea Hawkins, junior Rachel Reiling and freshman Kinsey Soniat into action. Allie has caught fire of late and is coming off a second-place finish at the Colonel Classic April 5. She turned in rounds of 76 and 78 to finish just two shots back of medalist honors and is averaging nearly 1.5 strokes better than her career average over her last two tournaments. Allie, Hall and Reiling have played the Pine Lakes Course in both tournament stops in the last year, while freshmen Hawkins and Soniat are making their first appearance in the A-Sun Championship.
"Malika is really showing some leadership in her scores on the course and I know she is focused on doing well after her runner up finish last week," said Lawton. "Amanda has been a great competitor over the years and she can make it really special in her final A-Sun Championship."
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