ANNAPOLIS, Md. – The Navy women's golf team begins its 2019-20 campaign this weekend at the Bucknell Invitational. Competition begins on Saturday at 9 a.m. with a shotgun start from the Bucknell Golf Club in Lewisburg, Pa. Action on Sunday will also be a 9 a.m. shotgun start.
The 54-hole tournament will feature nine teams with Bucknell, Hampton, Lehigh, Richmond, St. Francis, Towson, Wagner and Youngstown State joining Navy in the field. The Bucknell Golf Club is a par-70, 5,900-yard course and it will be the host course for the 2020 Patriot League Women's Golf Championship in April.
The Midshipmen come into the season after a second-straight runner-up-finish at the Patriot League Championship. Navy posted a three-round total of 43-over par 907 to place second and finish just four strokes behind Boston University.
Christine McDonnell and
Shannon Gould each earned First Team All-Patriot League honors, while
Morgan Frazier earned second-team accolades.
Last season, the Midshipmen captured the program's first tournament victory at the Low Country Intercollegiate with a 24-over par 600 to rally from second-place after day one to win the title. The Midshipmen then won its home Spring Invitational after compiling a 27-over par 603 and led wire-to-wire. Throughout the season, Navy posted six top-five finishes and was in the top 10 of all 10 of its tournaments except for the 49-team Kiawah Island Classic, where the Midshipmen placed 22nd in the largest golf tournament in the country last season.
Navy has nine of 10 players back from last season including all five letter winners. The pair of McDonnell and Frazier are back after leading the team with averages of 75.0 and 75.7 last season, respectively. Gould is also back from a strong freshman campaign where she was tied for the team lead with five top-five finishes and she finished fourth on the team with an average of 77.9.
Katie Um returns for her junior season after finishing with the team's third-best average of 77.9.
Navy's squad last season posted the best scoring average in program history with a 304.2 over 10 tournaments. In each of the first seven seasons in program history, Navy has lowered its team average each year.
This weekend, the Midshipmen will have 10 golfers in the field. Navy's lineup is set to include McDonnell, Gould and Frazier, while freshmen
Eve Worden is slated to make her collegiate debut and sophomore
Amelia Root rounds out the starting five. A quintet of Midshipmen are competing as individuals during the season-opening event led by Um.
Angelina Chan also makes her collegiate debut while sophomores
Jacqueline Cherry and
Tori Smith join senior
Micah Vincent as the final three competitors for Navy.
At the 2018 Bucknell Invitational, Fairleigh Dickinson won the tournament with a 64-over par 904 to beat second-place Lehigh by 17 strokes. Julia Warke of Fairleigh Dickinson won medalist honors with an 11-over par 221 to outlast her teammate Tomita Arejola who was in second place at 12-over par 222. This will be the first time the Midshipmen compete at the Bucknell Invitational.
