VIDEO: Elizabeth England Interview
JEFFERSON CITY, Tenn. – The Carson-Newman women's golf team look to hit the links for just the first time in March as the Eagles prepare to take the short trip west on I-40 to the Sevierville Golf Club's Highlands Course for the Bobby Nichols Intercollegiate hosted by Tennessee Tech from Sunday to Tuesday.
This will mark the event's sixth year but Carson-Newman's second-straight showing in the tournament.
The Eagles come into the Intercollegiate following a tough eighth-place showing at the Women's Spring Kickoff Intercollegiate at the end of February. Head coach Suzanne Strudwick's team has not been able to place in the top-five at an event since the fall when the team garnered three top-tier finishes.
"I hope the girls learned that they have to step up," Strudwick said of her team's performance. "Just because you've gone into and done well in qualifiers, what we identified was just a lack of competitive spirit."
"They still have to have their wits about them whereas you can sometimes, when it gets too familiar, you forget to play with that intensity and you can get a little too lackadaisical so I'm hopeful they'll keep up that competitiveness and intensity that we need."
After not competing in the previous event, senior Elizabeth England (Oakland, Tenn.) returns to the travel team for C-N with the hopes of defending her title from last year's Intercollegiate. She shot 72 in the first and second rounds before a final round of 75 placed her at six-over through the three rounds, becoming the event's individual champion. Her finish helped propel C-N to a fourth-place finish in 2017.
"It's a little nerve-racking to go into a tournament that you previously won," England mention. "But I think, especially since it's my senior year and I haven't gotten to practice or even travel to the last tournament, I'm just really focusing on playing my personal best and just not worrying about the score just as so much playing each shot at a time."
The senior has made a return to an event as a reigning champion just one other time this season – the King Invitational that opened the team's 2017-18 campaign. She was able to retain her title as the rest of her team also defended its team championship in the event back in September.
"I'm just trying to play well and hopefully get low enough scores to help my ranking out," she mentioned.
Aside from England, four other Eagles make their return to the Bobby Nichols Intercollegiate including Reagan Kinnie (Murfreesboro, Tenn.), Taylor Hayes (Lake Ozark, Mo.), Allie Fletcher (Cummming, Ga.) and Rachel Watts (Newport, Tenn.).
Kinnie will play at the No. 2 spot for the Eagles in the tournament. In the final round of the Spring Kickoff Intercollegiate, she carded her lowest round score of the season with a 75. She performed as an individual in the BNI just a year ago.
Hayes was the second-seed for the Eagles last season in the event but now she will fill the No. 3 position. The junior looks to improve on her 20th-place showing from the Kickoff where she tied for fourth on birdies with five and second for par three shooting with an even clip.
Fletcher will hold the fourth-spot on the C-N card this week, just as she did a season prior in the event. She will be making her first appearance with the team since the World Golf Invitational back in early February.
Matilda Frovenholt (Öjersjö, Sweden) rounds out the Eagles' team with her second-straight event. The freshman finished in a tie for 33rd at the Spring Kickoff where she carded a +20 total of 162.
Strudwick will take two individuals with her in this event to represent Carson-Newman. Anna Davenport (Roswell, Ga.) makes her first return a tournament this season since the King Invitational to open the season. Also performing as an individual there, she was 19-over in the two rounds of play, giving her a 161 total that was good enough for a tie at 15th.
Watts returns to the Bobby Nichols Intercollegiate with the hopes of improving on her 26th-place finish that saw her shoot +29 through the three rounds as the fifth-spot on the Eagles team. Like Frovenholt, she also tied for 33rd at the Spring Kickoff.
The field for this year's competition features ten teams, eight of those coming from Division I institutions including Alcorn State, Belmont, Evansville, Jacksonville State, Marshall, Radford, Tennessee State and host school Tennessee Tech.
Last season, the Eagles finished at fourth-place in the Intercollegiate, carding a team score of 932, 80-over par, through three rounds. Lee was the top team through all three rounds with a +43 total score of 895. Tennessee Tech and Belmont were the second and third teams each day, respectively.
"I think the girls enjoy having a tournament at a home away from home kind of thing in the sense that they are still on campus, they're sleeping in their own beds and it's a very familiar place," Strudwick mentioned. "We tend to practice and play on the river course so I actually kind of like that, the fact that we're playing the Highlands because it's very familiar but it's a newer course for them."
The three-day tournament will tee-off Sunday morning with an 8:30 a.m. shotgun start. Each day of competition will be comprised of one round of 18 holes.
