Upstate Women's Golf Releases 2014 Fall Schedule
7/24/2014 12:00:00 AM | Women's Golf
Spartanburg, S.C. – With five returning players and a pair of talented newcomers, the USC Upstate women's golf team will play five tournaments in the fall as head coach Todd Lawton has announced the 2014 fall schedule.
Upstate will play in five tournaments, making return appearances in all five events. The Spartans will play two tournaments in South Carolina and Florida and one in North Carolina."
The familiarity of playing on great venues again should help our veterans get comfortable with their games and allow us to focus on individual efforts," said Lawton. "We will count on the experience of our returners and hope for contributions from new players being added to the lineup. We can be strong with hard work."
Upstate opens the season Sept. 13-14 at the Great Smokies Intercollegiate hosted by Western Carolina at the Waynesville Inn & Golf Club. The Spartans will make their sixth appearance in the tournament. The 13th-place finish last year was the second-best finish for Upstate in the tournament after finishing tied for ninth in 2008 in what are typically very large fields.
Upstate travels to Charleston, S.C., to play in the CSU Wendy's Invitational at Rivertowne Golf Club Oct. 6-7. The tournament is hosted by Charleston Southern and the Spartans will play for the third time. They finished tied for eighth in 2012 and 10th last year. Upstate will play its first tournament in Florida when the team travels to Jacksonville, Fla., to play in the JU Classic at Marsh Landing Country Club Oct. 13-14. The Spartans have played in the tournament twice before this season, finishing a program-best sixth in 2010. Jacksonville serves as the host of the event.
Upstate returns to Spartanburg and remains at home to play in the Wofford Invitational at the Country Club of Spartanburg Oct. 20-21. The Spartans have played in the tournament three times, each of the last three years, and had its best finish in the event last year while finishing fifth. Allea Hawkins made women's golf history in last year's tournament when she made a hole-in-one in the first round, giving her a hole-in-one in back-to-back tournaments to start her collegiate career. She had recorded a hole-in-one in the Eat-A-Peach Classic to begin the season.
Upstate will close out the fall in a more than familiar spot when it heads back to Florida to play in Stetson's Hatter Classic at Victoria Hills Golf Club in DeLand. The Spartans have played in the tournament seven times, each year since moving to Division I in 2007-08. They claimed a program-best third in 2008 and were fifth last year.
Upstate is coming off a solid season in 2013-14. The Spartans lost Amanda Hall to graduation from last year's team. However, Lawton returns senior Rachel Reiling, junior Malika Allie and sophomore Allea Hawkins to the squad as leaders on the course. Letterwinners Allie Gennaula and Kinsey Soniat also return to what will be an experienced squad. Newcomers Payton Culler, younger sister of all-time standout Spartan men's golfer Baxter Culler, and Sidney Dermody will look to make their mark as well.
Upstate turned in a 323.7 stroke average last year, the fourth-best season stroke average in the history of the program. The Spartans were just 1.7 strokes off the 2012-13 team's school record average. Upstate turned in two Top 10 individual finishes on the year.
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