CMS Women's Golf Looks to Repeat at SCIAC Championships This Weekend
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CLAREMONT, Calif. - The Claremont-Mudd-Scripps women's golf team heads to Brookside Golf Club in Pasadena this week for the three-round SCIAC Championships, which begin on Thursday morning and conclude on Saturday, as the Athenas hope to win their third straight conference title.
CMS won the SCIAC title a year ago by a huge margin (53 shots over second-place Chapman) and went on to capture its first-ever NCAA Division III national championship, edging Williams in a playoff. Margaret Loncki, who graduated last spring, was the individual champion at SCIAC with a three-round 220 (+4), while four other Athenas placed in the top seven who are all returning this year.
Sophomore Mira Yoo ended up in third place a year ago at +10, while junior Emma Kang was fifth at +14, and senior Kelly Ransom and sophomore Emily Attiyeh tied for sixth at +15. That quartet will be joined by a pair of freshmen, Amy Xue and Tiffany Hu, in the CMS six-player roster for the championships, with Xue holding down the No. 1 spot for the Athenas after an impressive rookie campaign.
The Athenas head into the SCIAC Championships with plenty of momentum, setting a school record with a single-round 291 and a two-round 587 in their last tournament, when they captured the second SCIAC regular season championship by nine shots over Redlands on April 6-7. CMS also won the first SCIAC regular season title by seven strokes over Redlands back in February, which gives the Athenas a lead to work for the SCIAC's automatic bid to the NCAA Tournament (which combines all seven rounds from the two regular season tournaments and the three-round postseason championship).
The second SCIAC tournament saw Attiyeh shoot the low round for any SCIAC women's golfer all season with a 69 on Saturday, and she was matched by Ransom, who shot a 69 on Sunday's second round as part of the school-record 291 for the Athenas. Redlands shot a 292 on the same day, though, and the Bulldogs will pose a more significant threat to the SCIAC title than CMS faced a year ago.
The Athenas began the year as the Preseason No. 1 team in the nation, but had some growing pains in the fall season, as they slipped out of the top 10. CMS came back after the winter break, and has won every event it has entered (5-for-5) and has climbed back up to No. 6 nationally heading into SCIACs. The Athenas won a dual with Redlands, the George Fox Invitational and the Redlands Bulldog Invitational, in addition to the two SCIAC regular season tournaments.
CMS will begin play tomorrow at 8:48 a.m., with its tee times on Friday and Saturday morning contingent on the results of the opening rounds.