VALDOSTA, Ga.—The Bellarmine University women's golf team closed its 2021-22 season with an 11th place finish at the ASUN Conference Championship held Sunday through Tuesday at the par-72, 6,213- yard Kinderlou Forest Golf Club.
Freshman
Matti Spalding was the low Bellarmine player posting rounds of 79-79-84 for an aggregate score of 242, which ranked 43rd in the field. Bellarmine's best individual round was a 77 by
Jessica Stephens in the opening round.
The North Florida Ospreys, who came in the top-ranked team in the league, held off Kennesaw State for the team title. The Ospreys opened with a five-under-par team score of 283 to seize control early before closing with rounds of 294 and 291 for a four-shot win over KSU. Alizee Vidal of Kennesaw State was in the individual champion at five-under-par. Playing out of the No. 3 position for the Owls, Vidal closed with a bogey-free round of 68 (-5) to clip Siarra Stout of Lipscomb by three shots.
The 2021-22 season will go down in the Bellarmine history books as a year of solid strides in the Knights' transition to Division I. Among the highlights were a school record round of 291 at the Butler Fall Invitational and the first D1 individual championship with
Josephine Bonin's win at the Nevel Meade Collegiate.
Bellarmine's 21-22 squad set a new school record for season stroke average with their 317 bettering the previous mark by some five and a half shots. In fact, the team posted nine rounds this year that would have equaled or bettered the old school record (311).
For Bellarmine, this season could have been even better but keeping everyone healthy was an issue as injuries and illnesses prevented Coach
Art Henry from sending out a full squad on multiple occasions, including this week, when Bonin was forced to miss the ASUN tourney due to an illness.
The ASUN Championship closed the career for
Olivia Pennybaker, the team's lone senior. Pennybaker, who was one of the Knights fighting through injuries for part of the year, posted a stroke average of 81.0 this season, the best of her career and ninth best in program history. Her career stroke average of 83.25 ranks eighth on BU's all-time list. Pennybaker also posted her career-best round this season, shooting 73 at the Butler Fall Invitational.
4/17-19/2022 -- ASUN Championship
Kinderlou Forest G.C. -- Valdosta, GA
Par 72, 6213 yards -- 11 teams, 57 players
GOLFSTAT TOURNAMENT PAGE:
https://results.golfstat.com//public/leaderboards/gsnav.cfm?pg=participants&tid=24829
For more coverage of Bellarmine athletics, follow us on Twitter (@BUKnights), Instagram (BUKnights) and Facebook (BUKnights).
