Troy University Athletics
Troy Women Set To Open Season
9/8/2009 10:15:00 PM | Golf (W)
The Troy University women's golf team will open its fall schedule this weekend at the 16th Texas A&M "Mo"Morial Invitational at the Traditions Golf Club in Bryan.
After practice rounds on Thursday, the 11-team field will tee off at 9 a.m. on Friday and Saturday, and at 8 a.m. on Sunday in the 54-hole event. Live scoring is available at golfstat.com.
Joining the Trojans and host Aggies in the season-opening event will be Oklahoma, Tulane, Tulsa, Southern Mississippi, Sam Houston State, Texas State, Texas-San Antonio, Texas-Pan American and Texas A&M-Corpus Christi. The field, according to Trojans coach Matt Terry, is one of the strongest the team will face all season.
“We are excited to see if the momentum we built at the end of the spring season, as well as the success our players had over the summer, will carry over against a very strong field of teams,” Terry said. “Our practice has gone very well and, with four of our top five players back, this tournament will be a good challenge to see just where we are.”
The host Aggies are expected to be the best team in the field, with two returning All-Americans from last year. Senior Ashley Freeman, an All-American in 2008, is the reigning Big 12 individual champion and junior Sarah Zwartynski earned All-America honors as a true freshman in 2008.
The Trojans, who will be paired with Texas A&M-Corpus Christi and Texas-Pan American in the opening round, will field a lineup that includes seniors Desirae Zine (Vaccaville, Calif.) and Kaley Branton (Cartersville, Ga.), junior Liz Balkcom (Juliette, Ga.), sophomore Haley Lawrence (Prattville, Ala.) and freshman Sofia Bjorkman (Halmstad, Sweden).
Branton comes into the season on a hot streak. She played in the 29th annual Georgia-Florida Women's Team Match on August 10-11 and won 5 ½ of six possible points in her two matches. Branton also finished third in the Greater Atlanta Women's Amateur and sixth in the Yamaha Women's Open.
Lawrence also had success over the summer, playing in the WAGA State Amateur Championship. During that event she posted wins over a player from UAB, downed the seven time and defending tournament champion, Kathy Hartwiger, in sudden death and then defeated Courtney Trimble, the assistant golf coach from Auburn, to reach the finals.
In the finals Lawrence was defeated by Jordan Hardy, a recent Birmingham-Southern graduate, in a 36-hole match.
Lawrence and Balkcom were both named National Golf Coaches Association All-American Scholars for the 2008-09 school year. To receive that award a player has to maintain a minimum 3.5 GPA and must have played in at least 50 percent of the team's competitive rounds for the year.
After practice rounds on Thursday, the 11-team field will tee off at 9 a.m. on Friday and Saturday, and at 8 a.m. on Sunday in the 54-hole event. Live scoring is available at golfstat.com.
Joining the Trojans and host Aggies in the season-opening event will be Oklahoma, Tulane, Tulsa, Southern Mississippi, Sam Houston State, Texas State, Texas-San Antonio, Texas-Pan American and Texas A&M-Corpus Christi. The field, according to Trojans coach Matt Terry, is one of the strongest the team will face all season.
“We are excited to see if the momentum we built at the end of the spring season, as well as the success our players had over the summer, will carry over against a very strong field of teams,” Terry said. “Our practice has gone very well and, with four of our top five players back, this tournament will be a good challenge to see just where we are.”
The host Aggies are expected to be the best team in the field, with two returning All-Americans from last year. Senior Ashley Freeman, an All-American in 2008, is the reigning Big 12 individual champion and junior Sarah Zwartynski earned All-America honors as a true freshman in 2008.
The Trojans, who will be paired with Texas A&M-Corpus Christi and Texas-Pan American in the opening round, will field a lineup that includes seniors Desirae Zine (Vaccaville, Calif.) and Kaley Branton (Cartersville, Ga.), junior Liz Balkcom (Juliette, Ga.), sophomore Haley Lawrence (Prattville, Ala.) and freshman Sofia Bjorkman (Halmstad, Sweden).
Branton comes into the season on a hot streak. She played in the 29th annual Georgia-Florida Women's Team Match on August 10-11 and won 5 ½ of six possible points in her two matches. Branton also finished third in the Greater Atlanta Women's Amateur and sixth in the Yamaha Women's Open.
Lawrence also had success over the summer, playing in the WAGA State Amateur Championship. During that event she posted wins over a player from UAB, downed the seven time and defending tournament champion, Kathy Hartwiger, in sudden death and then defeated Courtney Trimble, the assistant golf coach from Auburn, to reach the finals.
In the finals Lawrence was defeated by Jordan Hardy, a recent Birmingham-Southern graduate, in a 36-hole match.
Lawrence and Balkcom were both named National Golf Coaches Association All-American Scholars for the 2008-09 school year. To receive that award a player has to maintain a minimum 3.5 GPA and must have played in at least 50 percent of the team's competitive rounds for the year.
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