Women Earn Berth into NCAA Championships

May 3, 2006

MEADVILLE, Pa. – The first year of a program is supposed to be about learning and just getting accustomed to the game. Not the Allegheny College women’s golf team, who earned one of ten spots at the NCAA Division III Championships, hosted in Howey-in-the-Hills, Florida.

“We’re really excited,” said head coach Jeff Groff. “Any time a team gets a bid to the national playoffs, it is a testament to the program and what the players have done throughout the year. To do it in the first year is even more special. I’ll be honest, this was never the plan coming in. Our goal was always to build a program that would compete first at the local and regional level, and then hopefully over time get to the national level.”

This year, the team has traveled to some of the top courses and competed against some of the top teams, including seeing seven of the other nine national teams during the course of the season, and have performed well, placing sixth of 11 teams at the NCAA Preview at the NCAA Championship course, and placing eight of 21 teams at the Jekyll Island Invitational in Jekyll Island, Georgia.

“When we went down to the Mission Inn in the NCAA Preview in the late fall, we went down not knowing how we would do,” said Groff. “We wanted to find out what we had and what we needed to work on – just how we stacked up against some of the better teams. We came in sixth place of 11 teams and we beat a couple of teams that were ranked. It wasn’t just a shot in the arm for us, but it served notice to a lot of people that this program is an up and coming program. During spring break we went down to Jekyll Island and played in another great tournament against a very strong field, 22 teams, and we did very well, coming in a tie for eighth place. Those tournaments let everyone know that even this year – right now – we needed to be looked at.”

The team started the fall strong, winning four of their first five matches, with their only loss coming to Division II Ashland University. The team brought home trophies from the Baldwin-Wallace Invitational, Penn State Behrend Invitational, the Ocean City Classic and the Washington & Jefferson Invitational, before traveling to the NCAA Preview.

The team did not miss a beat after their winter break, placing high at the Jekyll Island Invitational, before placing second at the McDaniel Invitational, and the Otterbein Invitational, before placing eighth of 10 teams at a Division II and NAIA laden Ashland Invitational. The team rebounded from their worst showing of the season to win their final two matches of the regular season, the Westminster Invitational and the Gannon Invitational.

Leading the team in scoring average this season is freshman Alison Bruckner (Glenview, Ill./Glenbrook South), who is averaging 85.56 strokes per round, highlighted by two straight medalist honors during the spring, at the Penn State Behrend Invitational in which she shot a 73 on a short course, before shooting back-to-back rounds of 86 and 88 to take first at the Ocean City Classic.

Closely following her is Jaime Reints (St. Charles, Ill./St. Charles East), who averages 88.42 strokes per round. Reints has earned seven top-10 finishes this season, including back-to-back performances of third and fourth at the McDaniel Invitational and the Otterbein Invitational in early April.

Erin Winings (Rockford, Ohio/Parkway) and Lisa Coleman (Lakeview, Ill./Frontier Central) are also averaging scores under 90 on the year, averaging 89.63 and 89.79 strokes per round, respectively.

Also traveling with the team at nationals will be Lauren Torso (Zelienople/Seneca Valley), who averaged 95.64 strokes per round as the fifth person for the Blue and Gold.

The Nationals begin on Tuesday, May 9 and will conclude on Friday, the 12th. Oglethorpe University and the Central Florida Sports Commission will be the hosts of the tournament. Check back for full results on the Allegheny College athletics website, www.allegheny.edu/athletics.

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