VIDEO: Suzanne Strudwick Inteview
JEFFERSON CITY, Tenn. – The Carson-Newman women's golf team embarks on its first Division I tournament of the 2015-16 season with the Bobby Nichols Intercollegiate hosted by Tennessee Tech at the Sevierville Golf Club's Highlands Course.
The Eagles are returning to the course for the first time since the Lady Moc Classic hosted by Florida Southern on Feb. 22nd and 23rd; C-N finished 14th in the event.
"It was a good rest. We were able to go through our stats, identity areas that we needed to work on, really work on those and make our practices more efficient," coach Suzanne Strudwick said of the hiatus. "The girls were able to have a spring break, which I think is important just to refresh the mind; most of them were able to go down to Florida and get some practice in down there, which is always a benefit for us. Generally, just mentally take a break. School work is starting to ramp up, so they were able to kind of prepare for that."
Competing for Carson-Newman's team in the Bobby Nichols Intercollegiate is freshman Taylor Hayes (Lake Ozark, Mo.), sophomore Elizabeth England (Oakland, Tenn.), junior Jessica Hart (Roanoke, Va.) and seniors Meridith Hawkins (Powell, Tenn.) and Kelli Pemberton (Knoxville, Tenn.). Hawkins averages 76.8 strokes per round on the Highlands Course and recorded her career-low two-round total of 146 in the 2013 Smokey Mountain Intercollegiate on the course; she finished fourth in the event. Pemberton averages 79 strokes in four career competitive rounds.
England, Hayes and Hart have each just played one tournament on the Highlands Course. Hayes finished third in this year's SMI with a two-round total of 152 for her career-best finish.
"The girls are used to playing it in difficult conditions and tough weather since February, we've played that whole month and those sort of conditions: a little bit colder, wind blowing. I feel really confident that girls will be prepared," Strudwick said.
Besides the Eagles and Golden Eagles, the other 10 teams competing in Sevierville are: Austin Peay, Evansville, Florida Atlantic, Oakland, Radford, Southern Mississippi, Tennessee State, North Carolina – Greensboro, Western Illinois and Youngstown State.
The three-day, 54 hole tournament will be played on the Highlands Course, which hosted C-N's Smokey Mountain Intercollegiate in September; Carson-Newman finished second behind Limestone at the SMI. Named after the late, great Tennessee Tech head coach, the fourth-annual Bobby Nichols Intercollegiate will feature a different format for the 2016 tournament. For the first time, the event will move to three rounds spanning three days, with single rounds taking place each day. The previous three years included just two rounds over two days. Last year, Belmont took home the team title, carding a two-round score of 602 (+34), which was the lowest 36-hole score in tournament history. The Bruins' first-round total of 295 was also the lowest in the history of the event. Eastern Kentucky finished second with a 620 (+52) and host Tennessee Tech tallied a third-place finish with a 629 (+61). Kayla Katterhenry of Evansville and Katie Story of Belmont tied for the individual lead through 36 holes with scores of 145 (+3). Katterhenry won medalist honors after defeating story on the fifth playoff hole.
The Highlands Course stretches 5,803 yards and plays as a par-71; the course winds through the back hills of Sevier County. The course is a championship-caliber layout as it played as the host of the 2013 SAC Championships.
The three-day, 54-hole Bobby Nichols Intercollegiate tees off at 8:30 a.m. on Sunday morning with a shotgun start. A full recap and results will be available on cneagles.com following the conclusion of action on all three days of the event.
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