May. 3, 2005
Cullowhee, N.C. - The Western Carolina department of athletics has named freshman golfer Matt Cook (men's golf) and junior golfer Ashley Hovda (women's golf) its Arby's/Catamount Student-Athletes of the Month for April.
Cook (Murphy, N.C.) continued his torrid pace through the spring season, finishing out the semester with five-straight top five finishes in the tournaments in which the Catamounts participated. After three consecutive top five finishes in March, including finishes atop the leaderboard in his first two collegiate events, Cook was last month's honoree. He continued his top flight play by posting a fifth-place finish at the Draper Valley Invitational in early April helping the Catamounts win the tournament, their first victory at an event in which they were not hosting.
Entering the Southern Conference Men's Golf Championships ranked fourth in stroke average (72.5), Cook was named second team All-Southern Conference. He became Western's first men's golfer to earn All-SoCon honors since 1995 when Jamie Whitley earned the honor by posting a season stroke average of 75.64. Cook also became the seventh Catamount to post a top five finish at the SoCon Championships placing fifth overall, and his 220 is the fifth-best score by a Catamount in the championships. He finished the spring season ranked atop the WCU men's golf stroke average list.
Hovda (Springfield, Ohio) finished the James Madison/Bonnie Hoover Invitational as Western's second-leading scorer, recovering from an opening day 83 to card a three-round 239. She entered the Southern Conference Women's Golf Championships in Greenville, S.C., with a seasonal scoring average of 77.04, which earned her second team All-SoCon honors for the second consecutive season.
At the season-ending championship meet, Hovda braved the elements to record the top round each of the last two days of competition to rally to place second individually. She helped the team rally to fourth in the overall standings marking the fifth-time since 1997 that WCU has placed in the top four. Hovda's three round score of 223 (79-71-73) ranks second all-time in WCU women's golf history at the conference championship, and stands as the eighth-best three round tournament score ever by a Catamount.
Hovda completed the 2004-05 season with a 76.74 stroke average, the third-best all-time individual season round in Western Carolina women's golf history. She also ranks fourth on the career scoring average lists with a stroke average of 78.23 over her first three seasons in Cullowhee.
|
|
 |
