VIDEO: Suzanne Strudwick Interview
JEFFERSON CITY, Tenn. – Coming off a strong second place finish at Trevecca's Music City Invitational, Carson-Newman looks to keep the top finishes alive heading to Germantown, Tenn. for the Christian Brothers University Super Regional Preview.
"For the girls to go out and do as well as they did to knuckle down, I mean, that was really our whole thing – to just grind it out," head coach Suzanne Strudwick said. "It was going to be tough for everybody, it was going to be all about attitude, so, if they could just tough it out, keep it going, we knew we were going to make mistakes. Every player out there was going to make mistakes, but just keep going, one step in front of the other, and they did that. They did it absolutely fantastically."
After the first day of play through unfavorable weather at Old Hickory, the Eagles landed at fourth on the leaderboard with astounding play from Jayla Sims and Matilda Frovenholt, the freshmen who made it on the travel team for Carson-Newman. Tuesday's second round was highlighted by Elizabeth England and Taylor Hayes' identical scores of 154, both veterans shaving six strokes off their Monday scores to gain eighth-place finishes.
Frovenholt ended the event at 13th with a total of 155 while Sims and Reagan Kinnie rounded out C-N's scoring with totals of 156 each to garner 17th-place finishes.
Impressive scores from the team encouraged Strudwick to keep the same travel team for the trip to Memphis with such a quick turnaround.
"I had it that we were going to have another qualifier, but, to be honest, these girls did so well. There were only two shots between all of them," Strudwick mentioned. "There wasn't one person who did not deserve to keep their spot on the team."
Unlike last week's Music City Invitational, Carson-Newman gets to take one individual with them to Memphis. That spot is being filled by Allie Fletcher.
Fletcher's last outing for the Eagles was as an individual at the Patsy Rendleman Invitational. She concluded the event at a tie for 20th on the leaderboard, shooting +9 with a total of 153.
"With her doing so well at Salisbury as an individual, again, it just really highlights the depth that we have on the team," Strudwick mentioned.
Last week's tournament gave Strudwick's team a taste of top tier competition in a 17-team field that included No. 1 University of Indianapolis and No. 7 Grand Valley State. C-N finished between the two teams on the leaderboard at the Music City Invitational.
This week, Christian Brothers University will host eight teams, including No. 2 Nova Southeastern and No. 4 Missouri-St. Louis. Representing the South Atlantic Conference along with Carson-Newman is Tusculum.
"We've been looking forward to this event for a while," Strudwick said. "We've talked about it as returning. Once Elizabeth made it as an individual last year, our goal has been to return to the regionals as a team."
The tournament will begin on Monday morning at the Germantown Country Club. Both days of competition will feature one round of 18-holes.
