Women's Golf Brings Home Cardinal Cup Team Championship

Sunday, September 15

Simpsonville, Ky.

Middle Tennessee

Cardinal Cup

9/15/2024 8:37:00 PM | Women's Golf

Results

By: Logan Hasselbach

SIMPSONVILLE, Ky. – It was the perfect end to the Cardinal Cup for the Middle Tennessee women's golf program. After finishing in the top-three after the end of the first two rounds, the Blue Raiders charged forward to take the lead through the first three holes. The team never looked back from there, continuing to push forward to card their best round of the tournament, a 289 (+1). The phenomenal round earned MTSU the team championship, the first of the Lauren Wamsley era and the first since 2022.

Ella Manley had a phenomenal bounce back weekend and was the low finisher for the Blue Raiders. Turning in a 74 in her final round, the sophomore secured her first top-10 finish of the season. She kicked off the day with a jaw-dropping chip in on hole two and continued to succeed throughout the day, tallying three birdies through the final 18, to finish at T7 (219).

Just behind her was Kendall Maynard, who earned her second consecutive top-10 finish at T9 for the tournament. In her sixth competition round in eight days, the senior pushed through and kept her mental game strong, also turning in a 74 (+2) for her final round. Finishing at 220 (+4) for the tournament kept the Blue Raiders in the hunt for the title throughout the weekend.

Lanie Campbell shot her lowest round of the weekend to charge up the leaderboard, making her the third Blue Raider to finish in the top-15 at the competition. With five birdies on the day, the junior shot 70 (-2) to jump up to T13 (222) to finish the tournament. The finish marks her highest of the fall season, as she continues to improve day after day.

Abbie Lee made her presence known in her first competition back from an injury last winter, placing in the top-20 after three hard-fought rounds. Carrying on her success from the previous two rounds, the Kentucky native shot a 75 (+3) in the third round to finish at T16 (223) at the Cup.

After a couple of difficult rounds to start off the tournament, Nicole Johnson kept a clean round of golf on her scorecard today and dramatically dropped her score in comparison to the previous 36 holes. Carding two birdies and just one bogey on the day, the sophomore completed the closing round at 71 (-1), her first par-or-lower round of the season. She shot up through the player leaderboard thanks to her performance, landing at T38 (230) for her best finish of the season so far.

The Blue Raiders continued to rack up the birdies and played their cleanest round of golf yet, turning in 14 birdies in the final round to sit at 880 (+16) when all was said and done.

Wamsley's Words
"What a special day it is today," said head coach Lauren Wamsley. "I am so proud of this team to fight as hard as they did all week through the weather. The rain, the wind and a few injuries here and there never slowed them down. The team went out fighting and earned some hardware to bring back home, so we're all really excited."

Tournament Notes

Middle Tennessee finished three strokes lower than the runner-up, Western Kentucky, who finished at 883 (+19)
Catie Craig of Western Kentucky earned the individual win, shooting 213 (-3) throughout the weekend.