Eastern Kentucky University’s women’s golf team concluded the 2016-17 season ranked 96th in the nation in the final Golfstat Rankings. There are 261 teams playing NCAA Division I women’s golf.
The Colonels finished the season rated higher than such teams as Virginia Tech (98), Kansas (99), Indiana (107), Cincinnati (114), South Florida (115), Nebraska (118), Long Beach State (129), Western Kentucky (131) and Jacksonville State (157).
Under the guidance of head coach Mike Whitson, the 2016-17 Colonels won a program record five tournaments. EKU just missed its third straight Ohio Valley Conference Championship, but finished in the top-2 for the fifth straight year. Eastern has won three of the last five the OVC titles (2013, 2015 and 2016).
The Colonels finished in the top-10 at all 11 events this past season, including 10 top-5 finishes. Eastern’s five wins came at the Cardinal Classic, Rocket Classic, Bill Berg Invitational, ORU/SFA Spring Break Invitational and the John Kirk Panther Intercollegiate.
In addition to establishing a new program record for victories in a season, several other team and individual records were broken as well.
This year’s squad combined for the lowest average score in EKU history at 299.81, more than three shots better than the previous mark set in 2015-16. The Colonels also combined for a new record of 330 birdies. The team did not break the record score for a 54-hole tournament, but posted the next four best scores.
Eastern’s total of 876 at the OVC Championship was a season-best and the third lowest tournament score in program history. The score would have been low enough to win any other previous 54-hole OVC Championship.
Newcomer Elsa Moberly and senior Sofie Levin established a number of new season and career records.
Moberly, a sophomore transfer from Mississippi State, set new single season program records for scoring average (73.47), national ranking (91), par or better rounds (13) and birdies (83). She also tied EKU Hall of Famer Beverly Brockman’s school mark with four tournament victories.
In the second round of her first-ever appearance as a Colonel, Moberly set a new program record with a round of 67 at the Thundering Herd Kickoff on August 29. She broke, or tied, the Eastern Kentucky record for 54-hole tournament score three times during the 2016-17 season. She set the new mark of 211 twice, at the Ball State Cardinal Classic and again at the Ohio Valley Conference Championship.
Levin concluded her four-year career as a four-time All-OVC selection and the EKU record holder for lowest career scoring average at 75.79. She also now owns the records for career par or better rounds (22), rounds played (121) and birdies (250).
In addition to Moberly, three others from the starting five at the OVC Championship will return for the 2017-18 season: junior-to-be Amanda Lindahl and sophomores-to-be Samantha Sandland and Hannabeth Owens.
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Kevin Britton
Assistant Athletics Director for Communications & Branding
