Spartans Set for 7th A-Sun Women's Golf Championships
4/11/2015 12:00:00 AM | Women's Golf
Spartanburg, S.C. – The USC Upstate women's golf team will make its fourth trip of the season to the Sunshine State when it plays in the A-Sun Championships April 12-14 (Sunday-Tuesday) on the Watson Course at the Reunion Golf Resort in Kissimmee, Fla.
Upstate head coach Todd Lawton will send a young, yet seasoned lineup into action at the A-Sun Championships with Eden Howard, Rachel Reiling, Allea Hawkins, Sindey Dermody and Payton Culler suiting up for the Spartans. Reiling is the senior leader of the group with four underclassmen in the lineup. Hawkins is a sophomore, while Howard, Dermody and Culler are freshmen.
Upstate is averaging 321.8 for the year, 0.2 stroke ahead of the 2012-13 team that set the program's season stroke average record at 322.0. Howard, who joined the program to start the spring semester, leads the team with a 78.3 stroke average. Reiling, playing in the final A-Sun Championship of her career, is second on the team at 80.0. The Spartans have two third-place team finishes on the season, one in each semester, and will look to close out the season with another solid finish.
Upstate is one of eight conference teams battling for the A-Sun Championship this week on the Watson Course. The Spartans enter the tournament as the 7th-best conference school in the latest Golfsat ranking, coming in at No. 205. Kennesaw State (64), North Florida (92), Jacksonville (112), Stetson (135) Florida Gulf Coast (162), Lipscomb (198) and Northern Kentucky (214) and will all compete for the conference title. Northern Kentucky is not eligible to earn the league's automatic berth to the NCAA Regionals if it were to win the conference championship.
Upstate Quick Notes
- Upstate's top team finish in the A-Sun Championships is eighth in both 2010 and 2013. Taylor Barnes turned in the top individual finish in program history, tying for 16th in 2013.
- With three freshmen in the lineup this week, Rachel Reiling and Allea Hawkins are the only two Spartans this year who played in the A-Sun Championships last year. Reiling topped last year's effort with a tie for 35th, while Hawkins tied for 45th.
- Rachel Reiling enters the A-Sun Championships ranked fifth all-time at Upstate with an 81.08 career stroke average. She also ranks fourth in rounds played and seventh in career winning percentage.
- Eden Howard has played enough rounds to now count toward season records at Upstate. Her 78.3 stroke average currently ranks second all-time in program history behind the 77.8 stroke average turned in by Richelle Wedzik in 2006-07. Howard is tops among all Spartan golfers during the Division I era.
- Upstate has posted 36 rounds in the 70's this season. Sidney Dermody and Rachel Reiling are tied for the team lead with nine each, accounting for 50 percent of the team's total rounds in the 70's.
- The 71 shot by Eden Howard in the final round of the Seminole State Invitational is tied for the second-lowest round ever shot in the history of the program. Howard tied Rachel Lewis, who shot a 71 in the second round of the Great Smokies Intercollegiate in 2011. The all-time low round was a 69, also shot by Rachel Lewis in the 2010 Great Smokies Intercollegiate.
- Upstate golfers have claimed 11 Top 20 individual finishes this season.
