GRANVILLE, Ohio (April 27, 2023) – The back-to-back North Coast Athletic Conference Champion Denison University women's golf team has been tabbed to once again bring home the title this weekend as the Big Red were picked to three-peat in the 2023 NCAC Women's Golf Pre-Championship Poll.

The 2023 NCAC Women's Golf Championships will tee off this weekend, April 28-30, on the North Course of the Westfield Country Club in Westfield Center, Ohio.

The College of Wooster will serve as the host institution for the 54-hole tournament, with 18 holes being played on Friday, Saturday and Sunday, respectively.

Friday's action starts with the women teeing off on hole one starting at 8:00 a.m. The tee time for Saturday begins at 12:15 p.m. for the women on the first hole, while the tee times for Sunday is slated for 12:15 p.m. on the 10th hole for the women. Westfield Country Club's North Course is a par-70 layout. The women will be using tee three on the North Course scorecard for holes 1-6 and 8-15 and tee four for hole 7 and holes 16-18. NCAC tee markers will be used and they are red for the women.

Spectator Information: Westfield Country Club is located at 6500 Greenwich Road, Westfield Center, Ohio 44251. The NCAC Championships are taking place on the North Course. Follow signage to get to North Course and go under the street (US-224) to get to the North Course. It is an approximate walk of one hole to get from the parking lot to the North Course.

There is no admission fee for spectators.

Westfield Country Club is renting spectator carts on a first-come, first-served basis at the clubhouse for $30.00 per day. Spectator carts must remain on cart path at all times.

NCAC Pre-Championship Poll: Two-time defending NCAC women's champion Denison collected five of the six first-place votes for 33 total points to top the pre-championship poll following balloting of the league coaches. Five-time NCAC champion DePauw claimed second with a total of 29 points, while Wittenberg and Wooster tied for third garnering 23 points apiece with the Tigers garnering the final first-place vote. Ohio Wesleyan (12) and Hiram (6) rounded out this year's six-team field.

Regular Season in Review: The Big Red enter the 2023 NCAC Women's Golf Championships ranked No. 16 in the latest Mizuno Women's Golf Coaches Association (WGCA) top-25 rankings. Denison has compiled five top-six team finishes this season, including two this Spring at the Savannah Invitational (Mar. 6-7) and The Max and Susan Stith Invitational (Apr. 3-4).

In its first two tournaments of the Fall season, Denison finished third in the Lynn Schweizer Invitational (Sept. 4) and was then fourth at the Illinois Wesleyan Fall Classic (Sept. 17-18) after shooting a season-low team score of 301 in the second round.

To round out its Fall schedule, Denison finished second out of 10 teams at the Guy & Jeanne Kuhn Memorial Invitational (Sept. 25-26) and finished in a tie for seventh place out of 12 nationally-ranked teams and 24 total teams at the Golfweek D3 Invitational (Oct. 16-18).

Players to Watch: The Big Red are led by senior Laine Hursh, who captured a runner-up finish at the 2022 NCAC Championship and was an All-NCAC first-team honoree. Joining her are fellow All-NCAC first-teamers in sophomore Ella McRoberts and junior Kate Griffin. McRoberts was named the 2022 NCAC Women's Golf Newcomer of the Year after finishing third at the conference championship a season ago, while Griffin captured a fourth-place finish. Senior Julia Shafir, who finished sixth last year, also returns after earning All-NCAC second-team honors in 2022.

Hursh led the Big Red with three top-five finishes and four top-10 finishes this season to go along with a scoring average of 77.5. Hursh finished second at the Lynn Schweizer Invitational, tied for third at the IWU Fall Classic, and was tied for fifth at the Savannah Invitational.

The rest of Denison's top-five at the NCAC Championship, in addition to Hursh, will be Griffin (78.5), McRoberts (78.7), Shafir (82.4) and Lindsey Byer (82.8). McRoberts was the other Big Red player other than Hursh with multiple top-10 finishes this season while Byer rounds out the Denison golfers who have appeared in all 15 rounds this season.

NCAC Athlete of the Week Awards

Denison women's golf earned four conference athlete of the week awards during the regular season:

9/19/22: After a great round two in which she shot two-under-par, Laine Hursh (79-70; 149) moved up 14 spots on the player leaderboard to finish at plus-five for the tournament and tie for third place, only four strokes out of first place, in a field that featured 99 total golfers at the Illinois Wesleyan Fall Classic. Hursh was tied for first in par-4 scoring (4.15; +3) and was one of only two players in the field with an eagle. Additionally, she helped Denison (320-301; 621) improve by 19 strokes as a team from round one to round two as the Big Red finished in fourth place overall out of 15 total teams.

10/3/22: Isabella Dolan (79-76; 155) improved by five spots and three strokes from round one to round two to pull into a tie for third place out of 59 golfers and lead the Big Red to a second-place finish at the Guy & Jeanne Kuhn Memorial Invitational.

3/13/23: In the first tournament of the Spring season for Denison at the Savannah Invitational, Laine Hursh carded a 150 (76-74) to finish in a three-way tie for fifth out of 95 individuals as No. 19 Denison placed fourth out of 18 teams at the Savannah Invitational. Hursh shot four-over with three birdies in the first round and then moved up six spots on the leaderboard with a two-over-par and two birdies in the second round. The senior tied for the lead in the tournament in par-3 scoring (3.00; E) and tied for fourth with 23 pars.

3/30/23: Isabella Dolan, led the Big Red with a 229 (77-74-78) at the Jekyll Island Collegiate, which included 24 teams and 13 nationally-ranked opponents. The rookie tied for 18th place out of 120 golfers. Dolan moved into 18th place after shooting a two-over-par during round two on Saturday to move up five spots on the leaderboard.

Flashback to 2022: The Denison University women's golf team captured its second straight North Coast Athletic Conference Championship under the direction of Head Coach Lauren Grogan on Sunday. As a team, the Big Red completed the three-day, 54-hole event with a 79-stroke win over the rest of the field at the Westbrook Country Club.

After posting an opening-round score of 318 on Friday and turning in a second-round score of 325, Denison ended with a third-round score of 335 to finish at 978. Each of Denison's three rounds were the lowest three rounds shot in the tournament. DePauw University (353-356-348) was second at 1,057, followed by the College of Wooster (385-362-351) at 1,098.

Sophia Alexander (71-82-85; 238) took home the medalist honors and was also named the NCAC Player of the Year in the post championship awards ceremony.

Last season's medalist winner and Newcomer of the Year, Laine Hursh (82-78-84; 244), finished in second place, six strokes behind Alexander.

This year, freshman Ella McRoberts (82-87-80; 249) was named the NCAC Newcomer of the Year after finishing in third place, only five strokes behind Hursh.

Kate Griffin (83-82-88; 253) finished in fourth place and joined Alexander, Hursh and McRoberts on the all-conference first-team.

Last but certainly not least, Julia Shafir (93-83-86; 262) finished sixth to headline the second-team all-conference squad and make it all five Big Red players finishing in the top-six.

Head Coach Lauren Grogan was named the NCAC Coach of the Year, making it a clean sweep of the NCAC awards for the Big Red for the second year in a row.
 
2023 Wooster Tournament Central
2023 NCAC Pre-Championship Poll
2023 NCAC Championship Central
NCAC Championship Live Results