Cummins, Watts receive All-SAC nods
ROCK HILL, S.C. – Maeve Cummins and Rachel Watts were the latest Carson-Newman women’s golfers to be recognized by the South Atlantic Conference as All-Conference players, as the league announced on Wednesday.
2020 All-South Atlantic Conference Women's Golf Awards
ROCK HILL, S.C. – Maeve Cummins and Rachel Watts were the latest Carson-Newman women's golfers to be recognized by the South Atlantic Conference as All-Conference players, as the league announced on Wednesday.
Cummins made the All-SAC second team while Watts represented the Orange and Blue as an honorable mention.
These latest accolades bring C-N to 25 All-SAC selections in program history. This is the second straight season coach Suzanne Strudwick's team has had a pair of players recognized with postseason laurels.
Cummins earned second-team status after leading the Eagles with a 75.5 scoring average through 15 rounds of play. She was a starter in all seven of the events C-N played in before the season was cut short, sitting mostly at the No. 1 and 2 sots. The Waringstown, Northern Ireland-native landed in the top 20 in five events with two in the top five, including a tie for second at the State Farm Intercollegiate with a one-over 145 through two rounds.
The sophomore sits at the top of the program's best career scoring average list through just two seasons with a 75.62 in 42 rounds. She also holds the two best single-season scoring averages in team history with this season's 75.5 and the 75.7 she recorded in her debut season. On a national level, Cummins is 63rd among NCAA Division II women's golfers in the latest Golfstat national ranking from March 19.
Cummins has now brought in back-to-back second team plaudits from the league as well as being tabbed the league's Freshman of the Year and winning the SAC Tournament Top Medalist title a season ago.
As for Watts, this marks the first All-SAC honor for the senior in her career. She closed out her career with the second-best scoring clip on the team this season with a 76.7, also a career-best. The Newport, Tenn.-native also started in all seven events, two of those featuring her in the top spot of the starting lineup. Watts turned in the lowest single round score among the Orange and Blue this season with a career-low 69 in the second round of the Music City Invitational where she finished third, her highest finish of the campaign.
In four years with the Eagles, Watts collected an 80.5 scoring average in 69 rounds, landing her at 10th in program history for career scoring averages. She brought in nine top 20 finishes throughout her career, two of those coming in the top five. The senior brought moved up to fourth on the program's best single-season scoring average list with her 76.7 this year.
Watts adds this accolade to the 18Birdies WGCA All-America Scholar plaudit that she received at the end of the 2018-19 season for her two postseason career laurels.
As a whole, Carson-Newman was ranked as high as No. 24 in the nation in the WGCA poll this season with top five finishes, three of those in the top three. The team's best finish came with a second-place showing at the Music City Invitational in mid-October with a 597 (+21). That finish came with a 296 in the final round, marking the lowest a C-N group has shot for since carding a 292 at the Sunoco Campbell Oil Classic on March 25, 2019.
For all the latest news and notes on the Carson-Newman women's program, stay tuned to cneagles.com and @CNathletics on Twitter.
