Troy Women’s Golf Opens Spring Season at FSU Match-Up

TROY, Alabama – The defending Sun Belt Conference champion Troy women's golf team returns to site of its first NCAA Division I Regional appearance as the Trojans travel to Tallahassee, Fla., and the Southwood Golf Club for the Florida State Match-Up this weekend.

Troy enters the spring season as the favorite to repeat as the Sun Belt champs according to Golfweek and are ranked No. 72 nationally by BirdieFire. The Trojans are coming off a solid fall campaign that saw a team title, a second-place finish and five individual top-10 performances.

"I like the expectations," head coach Bart Barnes said. "It's a little bit of a different role going in than last year, as I think we were the sleepers last season. I like having those expectations because it means that we're doing what we are supposed to do. We're going out and playing well each week and putting those expectations out there. For us to get that kind of recognition, it's a testament to the direction that our program is going and you just have to welcome that as it comes along."

The Trojans will face a stiff test at this weekend's event, which gets underway Friday with 18 holes. Troy is scheduled to tee off at 8:48 a.m. (CT) on the back nine and the Trojans will be paired with Kennesaw State. The field of 12 teams features 10 ranked in GolfStat's top 70, including No. 1 South Carolina, No. 9 Mississippi State, No. 13 Texas A&M and No. 15 Virginia.

"We're going to get to test ourselves against some of the best," Barnes said. "We finished our spring at Southwood last year and get start our spring there this year. We're taking four of the same players that went to Regionals last year and Sydney Conrad, who played the practice round there and walked all 54 holes with us.

"We're trying to take this as a full three-month season starting this week at Florida State. Each week we have a different test and a different challenge. At the end of the day, what we're trying to do is play as well as we can play, while in the back of our minds we're trying to progress each week and peak come conference time."

Leading the way for the Trojans is reigning Sun Belt Freshman of the Year Fátima Fernández Cano. Now a sophomore, Cano led Troy with a 74.0 stroke average in the fall and turned in a pair of top-10 finishes and an individual title at the Chris Banister Golf Classic.

Barnes also got solid fall seasons out of seniors Langley Vannoy (75.25) and Taylor McGraw (75.58), while sophomore Becca Horner (76.44) ended the fall on a high note with a ninth-place finish at Mississippi State's Old Waverly Bulldog Invitational. Conrad played in three events for the Trojans in the fall and posted a 77.63 average per round.

The Trojans excelled on their final run through the course in the fall as they posted a team stroke average of 296.0, which was nearly eight strokes better than their 303.8 average for the opening round.

"It is good to know that you've got that firepower if you need it in the last round," Barnes said. "I'd like to see us get off to fast starts, but at the same time, to know that the finishing kick is there gives us a lot of confidence. It comes from the experiences that these young ladies have in pressure situations that they can meet the challenge at the end of a long tournament."

The Florida State Match-Up Tournament is a very unique event and the first one of its kind in NCAA women's golf. The goal of the tournament is to get the spring season kicked off with some fun and friendly competition. The twelve teams will tee off in twosomes for the first two rounds and then in a final round shotgun in threesomes. The Match-Up Portion of the tournament will be determined by taking the best four scores from the partners (which is a total of ten players) and the worst score to make the Match Up total. At the end of the tournament, the teams with the lowest score will win the Match Up.

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Players Mentioned

Sydney Conrad

Becca Horner

Taylor McGraw

Langley Vannoy