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 Junior Bianca Melone led Western with a runner-up finish at the 2006 SoCon Championships, earning all-tournament honors with Kandy Carland and Malin Fryk. |
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April 23, 2006
2006 Southern Conference Women's Golf Championship - Complete Results
2006 Western Carolina Final Stats/Record Book
Mebane, N.C. - Led by junior Bianca Melone's best career finish at the annual conference event, the Western Carolina women's golf team posted a runner-up finish at the 2006 Southern Conference Women's Golf Championship at the Mill Creek Golf and Country Club. Two Catamounts were named first team All-Southern Conference as senior Ashley Hovda and sophomore Malin Fryk earned the yearly award, with Melone, Fryk, and sophomore Kandy Carland all garnering all-tournament accolades based upon their final finishing order.
Also, WCU Director of Golf and women's head coach, Steve Lott, was selected as the 2006 Coach of the Year, marking the third-time in his career he has earned the honor. Lott guided WCU to its most successful year on record posting top five finishes in 10 of the 11 events this season, including three-consecutive, first-place finishes to open the year, and a stroke average of 303.77, a dozen strokes better than last season and three lower than the 2002-03 SoCon Championship season.
Behind senior Angie Hill's tournament low round of 68 on Sunday, the College of Charleston captured its first Southern Conference Women's Golf Championship, joining Western and Furman as the only three SoCon schools to have won the annual event. The Cougars finished the rain-shortened 36-hole championship with a two-day cumulative total of 585, besting second place Western Carolina (587) by two strokes. UNC Greensboro, who began the day four strokes behind the Catamounts, finished third with a two-day total of 600, followed by 11-time champion, Furman (607), and Elon rounding out the top five at 629. Western's 587 was the third-best, 36-hole tournament in school history.
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With two birdies through the first six holes, Melone was set to make the turn at two-under par until a bogey at the ninth hole left her one-under headed to the back. She moved to even par after a bogey on hole number 12, a layout she birdied on the opening day, but recovered to score birdie on the par 3, 13th and shot even the remainder of the round to finish second. The Orlando, Fla., native has steadily progressed in each of her SoCon Championship appearances, placing 11th in 2004 as a freshman and 10th in 2005 as a sophomore.
Senior Ashley Hovda (top) and sophomore Malin Fryk (bottom) were named to the first team All-Southern Conference. |
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Carland made the biggest jump of the day for the Catamounts, moving from a 10th-place tie after the opening round to finish in a three-way tie for fifth with classmate Fryk and Monique Gesualdi from Furman who mirrored Carland's positional move. After shooting three over on the front nine on Friday, including a double-bogey and two bogeys, Carland fired an even-par 36, scoring each hole in regulation. On the back, the Hendersonville, N.C., native moved to two-under after back-to-back birdies on 11 and 12, but scored bogey on the par 4, 14th and par 3, 17th, to finish even on the day and four over for the tourney at 148.
Fryk equaled Carland's tally but achieved it by a different route. The Swedish-born striker posted an up-and-down end to the front nine, double-bogeying number seven followed by a birdie on the par 3, eighth and a bogey on nine to make the turn two over par. Over the final nine holes, the Trollhattan native scored a pair of birdies and nearly finished the day even until a bogey at 18 left her one-under on the back nine and one-over for the day.
Barring an individual invite to the NCAA Championships, three Western golfers concluded their outstanding careers on Sunday. Seniors Brandy Andersen and Ashley Hovda finished fine four-year campaigns with the Catamounts, ranking third and fourth, currently, on WCU's career scoring average lists. However, the duo rank one-and-two among individuals to spend all four years playing at Western. Andersen burst onto the scene as a freshman, winning individual medalist honors at the 2003 SoCon Women's Golf Championship in Waynesville, N.C., en route to the freshman of the year honors. The Orlando, Fla., native would taste victory a total of five times and post 11 top 10 finishes throughout her career. Hovda was the steady one, consistently improving her game over her career and was arguably the best player in the SoCon this season. Moving south from Springfield, Ohio, Hovda won three times during her stint in Cullowhee, yet posted an unrivaled 16 top 10 finishes including nine in 11 events this season. Both were All-SoCon performers, with Andersen winning two in 2003 and 2004, and Hovda garnering second team honors last season before being named first team in 2006, while also performing well in the classroom with multiple selections to the SoCon's TIAA-CREF Academic All-Conference team.
Joining Andersen and Hovda in wrapping up their career at Western is senior Erika Danford. A transfer from the University of Florida back in 2003, Danford steadily improved her play while maintaining the tradition of WCU women's golf with excellence in the classroom. One of two recipients of the 2004-05 WCU Female Scholar Athlete of the Year, Danford made the most of her opportunities in her final season, recording a scoring average of 78 to move to ninth on WCU's all-time career list. She broke par for the first-time in her career during the opening round of the Wachovia-Great Smokies Intercollegiate back in early-October of 2005.
Keeping with the theme of the WCU's best women's golf season ever, the 2005-06 squad turned in 11 of the top 20 best two-round scores and five of the top 20 three-round scores in school history. Ten individual rounds turned in by this year's team ranked inside the all-time top 20, with seven, two-round tallies and four, 54-hole scores ranking among the best-ever at Western Carolina. Individually, Hovda and Fryk recorded the best two single-season scoring averages in school history, averaging 74.81 and 76.08, respectively, with Fryk's average debuting on the WCU career chart at number one all-time.
Western returns three individuals from the SoCon runner-up squad next season, all of which finished the season on a strong note and earned all-tournament honors this weekend. Carland scored her first career victory in the final regular season event and then proceeded to march to the front for her fifth-place showing. Fryk, who won in her inaugural WCU appearance, was another strong golfer for the Catamounts, finishing second in scoring average to Hovda. Melone was solid all season for Western, posting a pair of top 10 finishes. The returning trio will be joined by a pair of Swedes in Desiree Karlsson (Hollviken, Sweden) and Elin Mickelsson (Gavle, Sweden).
2006 Southern Conference Championships
1 Charleston, Coll. of 294 291 585 + 9 2 Western Carolina U. 295 292 587 + 11 3 N. Car.− Greensboro 299 301 600 + 24 4 Furman University 308 299 607 + 31 5 Elon University 318 311 629 + 53 6 Appalachian State U. 326 307 633 + 57 7 Wofford College 322 313 635 + 59 8 Citadel, The 342 334 676 +100
Western Carolina Scoring 2 Bianca Melone 71 71 142 T5 Kandy Carland 76 72 148 T5 Malin Fryk 75 73 148 8 Ashley Hovda 73 76 149 T15 Brandy Andersen 76 77 153
2006 All-Southern Conference Teams First Team Ashley Hovda, Western Carolina Angie Hill, College of Charleston Malin Fryk, Western Carolina Samantha Widmer, Elon Kathleen Ekey, Furman
Second Team Blair Lamb, Furman Gretchen Zoeller, College of Charleston Ashley Mylton, UNC Greensboro Anna Stocker, Appalachian State Taylor Johnson, Elon Julia von Rohrscheidt, College of Charleston
Freshman of the Year Kathleen Ekey, Furman
Coach of the Year Steve Lott, Western Carolina
Player of the Year Angie Hill, College of Charleston
