Coach Suzanne Strudwick previews the South Atlantic Conference Championships and discusses what her team must do to earns its fourth SAC title.
VIDEO: Suzanne Strudwick Interview
JEFFERSON CITY, Tenn. – Following a regular season that saw the Eagles pick up a tournament victory and two players earn all-conference recognition, the Carson-Newman women's golf team will travel to Greeneville, Tenn. for the South Atlantic Conference Championships, which are scheduled for April 9th – 11th at the Link Hills Country Club.
"The girls are chomping at the bit," coach Suzanne Strudwick said, "which is exactly what I wanted. We played two weeks in-a-row and then we've had a week off, so it's been a really good schedule for us. We've trended well. The events we played prepared us really well for this. We're ready."
Strudwick and her student-athletes will be attempting to capture the program's fourth conference title. Their most recent SAC championship came in 2015, when England's sixth place finish, combined with a second-place performance from Danielle Baiunco, propelled the Eagles past Newberry by seven shots.
This year, England, who recently became the first Eagle to earn All-SAC First-Team honors three times, figures to lead the way following a regular season in which she crafted the second-lowest stroke average in the league at 76.2. She'll be attempting to become the first C-N player to win the competition's individual crown since Sarah Jane Sinard in 2009. For England, the road to Greeneville included her third and fourth career victories, as she captured the top spot at the King (Tenn.) Intercollegiate in September and the Bobby Nichols Intercollegiate in March. She also owns the only two rounds below par posted by Carson-Newman this year and the squad's five best 18-hole scores.
Taylor Hayes (Lake Ozark, Mo.) joined England on the all-conference roster with an Honorable Mention nod and will be trying replicate her SAC tournament performance from 12 months ago, when she finished a team-best fourth. She enters this event after earning the fifth spot on the leaderboard at the Sunoco Oil Campbell Classic, her third foray into the top ten as a sophomore.
Reagan Kinnie (Murfreesboro, Tenn.) returns to the lineup for the first time since the fall, though she has played in two events as an individual this spring, and will be making her first appearance at the SAC Championships. Her time as a freshman has included a second place finish at the King Intercollegiate and her stroke average of 80.7 lands her the third spot in the squad's lineup.
One of three players who has participated in every event on the team's slate, Allie Fletcher's (Cumming, Ga.) first campaign in the Blue and Orange has seen her average 82.7 strokes per 18 holes, fourth best for the Eagles. Within the last month, the freshman has achieved two of her three best finished since joining the program, claiming finishes of 20th and 24th. At the most recent competition, her second round score of a four-over 76 was a new career-best.
The only senior among the group is Jessica Hart (Roanoke, Va.), who tied for 45th at the SAC Championship in 2017. Her best showing came at the Converse Spring Invite in February, where she rose all the way to 17th, thanks in large part to a second round 78. Rachel Watts (Newport, Tenn.), who will be participating as an individual, is the final member of the team who will be on the course.
The Eagles will be attempting to wrestle the league title away from the Queens (N.C.) Royals, who topped Carson-Newman by four shots to claim last year's championship. Anderson (S.C.) will take a conference-best stroke average of 314.3 into Greeneville, but Wingate possesses the highest spot on Golfstat.com's ranking at 37th. Lenoir-Rhyne is currently at 42nd, Queens 45th and C-N 47th.
"We'll need all five players humming [this week to win]," said Strudwick, "which is what we've done the last two weeks. We need to keep that trend going. Our players don't need to play over their heads, they only need to stay within themselves. As long as we can keep our frustrations in check and keep a good attitude, we'll be fine."
Each team will be trying to conquer a 5,910 yard, par 72 course that was designed by Robert Trent Jones in 1954. Coach Strudwick and her charges played on this course last season in the Agnes McAmis Memorial, where they placed third.
At the conclusion of each day's action in Greeneville, a recap and results will be published on cneagles.com.
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