March 22, 2015

SAC-filled Wingate Intercollegiate Challenge await Eagles

JEFFERSON CITY, Tenn. – Nine South Atlantic Conference teams litter the playing field at this week’s Wingate Intercollegiate Challenge that will be played at Ole Sycamore Plantation in Charlotte, N.C. and will give the Carson-Newman women’s golf team a chance to survey the conference field prior to the SAC Championships next month.

JEFFERSON CITY, Tenn. – Nine South Atlantic Conference teams litter the playing field at this week's Wingate Intercollegiate Challenge that will be played at Ole Sycamore Plantation in Charlotte, N.C. and will give the Carson-Newman women's golf team a chance to survey the conference field prior to the SAC Championships next month.

Host Wingate, Lenior-Rhyne, Queens, Tusculum, Newberry, Lincoln Memorial, Mars Hill and Coker join the Eagles for the first-year tournament to be held in the Queen City.

Carson-Newman has not played a competitive round of golf since March 3^rd at the Armstrong Pirate Women's Invitation in Savannah, Ga. Since then, Snowmageddon 2015 occurred and spring break has honored.

"During the spring break, they each had individual things they had to work on; we had talked before they left. It was a great opportunity for us to get the girls going home, most of them live south of here, so they were getting to some good golf courses, good practice facilities; most of them were seeing their teachers, so it was a time of just personal practice play, because up here, we have been fighting the elements. It's been terrible," coach Suzanne Strudwick said. "It was really good and so far, this practice this week, it shows. They've come back and they are ready to go."

With the SAC Championships, which Carson-Newman will host at the Sevierville Golf Club, looming on the horizon in a few weeks, this week's tournament gives the Eagles a chance to size up the league.

The top-ranked team in the conference this season is Wingate who is 30^th in Division II. Newberry is in 37^th, Queens is ranked 39^th and the Eagles are fourth in the conference with a 44^th-place ranking.

Converse, 17^th-ranked Limestone, Pfeffier, UNC-Pembroke, King USC-Beaufort are also in this week's field.

"We are going to stay focused on ourselves. Obviously, Newberry, Wingate and LMU are our main rivals, but really, I'm going to be focused on our girls and our team, get them really prepared, really narrowing it down," Strudwick said. I'm taking an individual, so we will have six players. Those six players are pretty much going to be our team going into conference, so it's a great time for them to figure out where their games are, what they need to work on. Our goal is to win conference, that's our ultimate goal. This is a great warm-up. It's going to be a good challenge for us with all the conference teams. I'm looking forward to it and I know the girls are too."

The six golfers Strudwick is taking to the Queen City is senior Danielle Baiunco (Melbourne, Fla.), juniors Meridith Hawkins (Knoxville, Tenn.), Kelli Pemberton (Knoxville, Tenn.), Rebekah Pruett (Niceville, Fla.), sophomore Jessica Hart (Roanoke, Va.) and freshman Elizabeth England (Oakland, Tenn.).

Three Eagles average sub-80 rounds this season. England is tied for eighth in the conference with a stroke average of 78.3. Hawkins has a 79.9 average and Baiunco's average sits at 79.4.

Strudwick is in the process determining her squad for the conference tournament, which will consist of a five-person combination of the six players competing this week. And she will be looking for Eagles who are playing their best golf of the season.

"Just for them, personal responsibilities on what they need to do. It's a team effort, obviously, but golf is still an individual sport, so there is some responsibility needed to just start narrowing their focus down. The things they have been working on in the fall, over the Christmas break, now over spring break, those things need to start to be narrow and starting to work on those individual aspects where I've seen some weakness and now we need to tighten up. They need to be starting to play their best, this is it."

Ole Sycamore Plantation is the host site for the Wingate Intercollegiate Challenge. The Charlotte-based course opened in 1997 and stretches across 6,398 yards.

The Challenge will be played Monday and Tuesday. Full results and a daily recap will be available on cneagles.com after the rounds.

-CN-