Monday, October 24, 2011

KIAWAH ISLAND, S.C. (Oct. 24, 2011) – The ETSU women’s golf team enjoyed a record-setting day Monday during third and final round play in the Palmetto Intercollegiate at the Oak Point Golf Club.

Firing a team score of 7-under-par 281, the Buccaneers bested the previous program mark of 285 for a single round effort en route to making up six spots on the team leaderboard and finishing the event in third place. Individually, the team was led by freshman Gabriella Wahl (Heidenheim, Germany), who posted a career-best round of 3-under-par 69 and ended the event with a second place showing. She fired a 3-under-par 213 for the event.

“We have been expecting our games to come together, and today that happened for us,” said ETSU head coach Stefanie Shelton. “Four ladies scoring under par is exceptional. I’m so proud of them all. They work hard and this effort shows they believe in themselves. When these young women stay calm and play – great things happen.”

It was an all-around impressive effort for the Bucs. While UNC Greensboro came away with the team title and UNCG’s Fanny Cnops was the individual winner, it was the Bucs are their impressive 281 that blew the field away on Tuesday. In fact, the score was six strokes better than any other team in the tournament and they ultimately finished just one stroke out of second place.

While Wahl led the charge by posting her second top-six performance of the fall season, she was joined in under-par territory by three other Bucs. Sophomore Sian Evans (Gilligham, England) fired a 2-under-par 70 to finish tied for 14^th, while junior transfer Chloe Garner (Somerset West, South Africa) and senior Mayte Vizcarrondo (Cadiz, Spain) each carded scores of 1-under-par 71.

Garner finished tied for 32^nd and Vizcarrondo ended the day tied for 35^th.

Shelton praised the team as a whole, and said Wahl was in a particularly good place both mentally and physically throughout the tournament.

“Gabriella is in an excellent zone right now with her game,” Shelton said. “She is a great competitor. But the whole team showed what we are capable of doing every time on the course. That is what’s so exciting about our effort today. I’m just extremely proud.”

The Bucs will return to action for their final event of the 2011 fall season Friday in the Lady Paladin Invitational hosted by Furman University in Greenville, S.C. For more on ETSU women’s golf throughout the 2011-12 campaign, visit ETSUBucs.com and click on the women’s golf link.