April 3, 2016
By Chris Masters
BROWNS SUMMIT, N.C. – Entering this weekend’s Bryan National Collegiate, the University of Notre Dame women’s golf team had several opportunities at hand. By Sunday afternoon, the Fighting Irish had cashed in on the vast majority of those chances.
In a tournament that mirrored a postseason event with the strength of its field and the difficulty of the conditions, Notre Dame persevered and battled its way to a tie for fifth place at 45-over par 909 (297-303-309) on the Bryan Park Champions Course (par 72/6,386 yards) in Browns Summit, North Carolina (just outside Greensboro).
It was the sixth top-five finish in nine tournaments for the Fighting Irish this season, marking the first time since 2012-13 and the fourth time in head coach Susan Holt’s 10-year tenure they have posted six top-five finishes in a single season.
What’s more, Notre Dame enhanced its postseason resumé by placing ahead of five teams ranked in the Golfstat Top 50, including three teams that began the tournament ahead of the 38th-ranked Fighting Irish – No. 28 East Carolina, No. 31 North Carolina State and No. 37 Miami.
Senior captain Talia Campbell registered her fifth top-10 finish of the season, tying for eighth place (224/+8) at the Bryan National Collegiate on Sunday afternoon in Browns Summit, North Carolina.
It was an encouraging finish to a tournament that saw no one in the 84-golfer field break 70 during the weekend, and only one of the 15 teams in the event shoot better than 300 during Sunday’s final round.
“It was another windy day and we just had to keep grinding and keep our heads right,” Holt said. “I was really proud of how we hung in there. We picked up some good head-to-head wins, so all in all, it was a good tournament.”
Senior captain Talia Campbell (Dallas, Texas/Ursuline Academy) continued her outstanding final season at Notre Dame, posting her best finish of the spring with a tie for eighth place at eight-over par 224 (74-75-75), just five strokes back of tournament champion Sarah Schmelzel of South Carolina. It was Campbell’s fifth top-10 outing this year (third in four spring tournaments) as well as her 20th career team-leading finish, the latter breaking a tie with Becca Huffer (2008-12) for second in program history.
Freshman Maddie Rose Hamilton (Louisville, Ky./Sacred Heart Academy) ended up tied for 26th place at 12-over par 228 (77-75-76). It was the fifth time this year Hamilton has finished 26th or better, including the third time in her last five tournaments.
Fellow rookie Isabella DiLisio (Hatfield, Pa./Mount Saint Joseph Academy) ended in a tie for 34th place at 14-over par 230 (73-77-80). DiLisio now has finished in the top 35 in all but one of Notre Dame’s nine tournaments this year.
Junior Jordan Ferreira (University Place, Wash./Bellarmine Prep) and freshman Emma Albrecht (Ormond Beach, Fla./Father Lopez) were part of a three-way tie for 42nd place at 16-over par 232. Ferreira posted rounds of 73-77-82, while Albrecht shot 78-76-78 during the weekend.
Notre Dame now has two weeks to prepare before teeing off in the 2016 Atlantic Coast Conference Championship that takes place April 15-17 at the Sedgefield Country Club in Greensboro. Live scoring will be available through the Golfstat web site (golfstat.com).
For more information on the Notre Dame women’s golf program, visit the women’s golf page of the official Fighting Irish athletics web site (UND.com/ndwomensgolf), sign up to follow the Notre Dame women’s golf Twitter feed (@NDwomensGolf) or register for the Irish ALERT text-messaging system through the “Fan Center” pulldown menu on the front page at UND.com.
Bryan National Collegiate
April 1-3, 2016
Bryan Park ââ’¬” Champions Course (par 72/6,386 yards)
Browns Summit, North Carolina
FINAL TEAM SCORES (54-hole totals): 1. Virginia 888 (289-295-304); 2. South Carolina 894 (297-299-298); 3. Florida State 896 (299-290-307); 4. Wake Forest 901 (298-297-306); 5. (tie) NOTRE DAME 909 (297-303-309) and Kentucky 909 (306-293-310); 7. East Carolina 910 (299-303-308); 8. North Carolina State 911 (304-303-304); 9. Miami 914 (298-306-310); 10. North Carolina 917 (302-304-311); 11. Michigan 926 (314-304-308); 12. UCF 933 (315-301-317); 13. Penn State 946 (319-315-312); 14. Cal State Fullerton 953 (307-312-334); 15. UNC Greensboro 969 (326-317-326).
TOP SEVEN INDIVIDUALS PLUS NOTRE DAME GOLFERS (of 84): 1. Sarah Schmelzel (USC) 219 (73-71-75); 2. (tie) Jennifer Kupcho (WF) 221 (72-73-76), Matilda Castren (FSU) 221 (71-71-79) and Katelyn Dambaugh (USC) 221 (75-76-70); 5. (tie) Lauren Coughlin (UVA) 222 (72-72-78) and Elizabeth Szokol (UVA) 222 (71-75-76); 7. Frida Gustafsson Spang (ECU) 223 (75-74-74); 8. (tie) Talia Campbell (ND) 224 (74-75-75); 26. (tie) Maddie Rose Hamilton (ND) 228 (77-75-76); 34. (tie) Isabella DiLisio (ND) 230 (73-77-80); 42. (tie) Jordan Ferreira (ND) 232 (73-77-82) and Emma Albrecht (ND) 232 (78-76-78).
— ND —
Chris Masters, associate athletics communications director at the University of Notre Dame, has been part of the Fighting Irish athletics communications team since 2001 and coordinates all media efforts for the Notre Dame women’s golf and women’s basketball programs. A native of San Francisco, California, Masters is a 1996 graduate of Ohio Wesleyan University, earned his master’s degree from Kansas State University in 1998, and currently serves on the Board of Directors for the College Sports Information Directors of America (CoSIDA).