2015 SCAC Women's Golf Championship - Preview

2015 SCAC Women's Golf Championship - Preview

LAWRENCEVILLE, Ga. – The 2015 SCAC Men's and Women's Golf Championships tees off Monday, April 20 and will run through Tuesday, April 21. Official Website

The men's teams will play 36 holes on Monday and 18 on Tuesday while the women's teams will play 18 holes each day. All teams will play an 18-hole practice round on Sunday. The tournament will be contested at the Vaaler Creek Golf Club in Blanco, Texas.

Trinity University is the defending women's golf champions after defeating Southwestern University by one stroke at the 2014 SCAC Wome's Golf Championship in the closest finish in the 19-year history of the event. It was Trinity's first SCAC women's golf championship since the inaugural event in 1995.

Trinity, which is 15th in the lastest GolfStat team rankings, returns four All-SCAC golfers from a year ago, including 2013 SCAC Player-of-the-Year Brigette Lee and 2014 SCAC Freshman of the Year Hanna Ninner. Lee, a junior, is a two-time First Team All-SCAC performer while Ninner was the top finishing first-year player in earning First Team All-SCAC honors a year ago. Sophomore Christine Campbell and junior Madeline Moran also return. Campbell earned First Team All-SCAC last year and Moran has been Second Team All-SCAC the last two seasons.

Schreiner University sits in 31st place in the GolfState Division III women's team rankings. The Mountaineers, who finished in third place in the team's inaugural appearance at the SCAC champinoships, are led by senior Melanie Dean, sophomore Kaycee Bankert and senior Maddie Scheidler. Dean is currently leading the team with a 80.73 strokes per round average while Bankert follows at 81.77 and Scheidler averages 82.38. Scheidler and Bankert finished tied for seventh and 11th, respectively, a year ago to earn Second Team All-SCAC honors.  

Southwestern, currently 33rd in the GolfStat team rankings, is led by juniors Bernice Leonard and Keely Coburn who both earned Second Team All-SCAC honors in 2013 and 2014. Leonard is currently leading the Pirates with a 79.79 stroke average. Senior Lauren Boone, a Second Team All-SCAC selection in 2013, is second on the team with an average round score of 84.00 while Coburn follows closely at 84.21. 

Centenary College is led by junior Jamie Wright, a two-time First-Team All-SCAC performer who finished second among all individuals at last year's championship. Wright shot a two-day total of 156 to finish just one shot behind the tournament's medalist, Southwestern's Ali Walden. Sophomore Taylor Thompson has actually been the hottest Centenary golfer this spring, posting team-best scores at each of the last three spring events for the Ladies which included a ninth place finish at the prestigious West Region Invitational two weeks ago.

Texas Lutheran University will count on senior Autumn Durst and junior Gabby Rangel to post low scores at the conference championship meet. Durst, who was the team's top finisher at the 2014 SCAC Championships (16th place) has led the Bulldogs in scoring in two of the last three spring events including a 29th place finish at the West Region Invitational. Rangel carded a top 10 finish at the UTD Lady Comet Invitational in late March. 

For complete coverage of the 2015 SCAC Men's and Women's Golf Championships, including links to live hole-by-hole results, click here:

http://scacsports.com/tournament/spring/golf/index