Springfield, Ohio – The Wittenberg University women’s golf team is nearing the end of its most successful fall season in program history. After winning three of their first four tournaments, the Tigers will cap the first half of the 2014-15 campaign with the annual Pat Clouse Invitational at Springfield Country Club on Saturday, Oct. 11, and Sunday, Oct. 12.
Wittenberg is joined in the 16-team field by North Coast Athletic Conference (NCAC) rivals Allegheny, Hiram, Denison, DePauw, Ohio Wesleyan and Wooster, in addition to Greensboro, Nazareth, Ithaca, Randolph-Macon, Spalding, SUNY-Cortland, Ohio Valley, Washington & Jefferson and Otterbein. The golfers will play one round each day.
The tournament is the second of three scheduled by Wittenberg Men’s and Women’s Golf Head Coach Jeff Roope at historic Springfield Country Club during the 2014-15 school year. The Tiger men previously hosted (and won) the Rosencrans-Maurer Invitational Sept. 8 at Springfield Country Club, and the men and women will return to the course again for the NCAC Championship Series #2 May 2-3, 2015.
Designed in 1922 by renowned golf course architect Donald Ross, Springfield Country Club plays to a total yardage of 6,684 yards with a par 72. The challenging course has served as host to the 1988 Ohio Amateur, 2006 Senior Amateur, and the 2007 Ohio Amateur, and it was a qualifying site for the 2008, 2010, 2011 and 2012 U.S. Open.
The Pat Clouse Invitational is named for one of the most influential figures in the women’s sports history at Wittenberg. Pat Williams Clouse, class of 1964, excelled in several sports during her undergraduate career at Wittenberg. She returned to her alma mater in 1968 to join the Physical Education Department faculty, and over the course of the next 40 years she served as the first coach in three different varsity sports: women’s swimming and diving (1970), women’s lacrosse (1972) and women’s golf (2003).
Wittenberg is coming off one of the finest seasons in program history in 2013-14. The Tigers placed second in the NCAC Championship Series and just missed out on an at-large berth in the NCAA Division III for a second straight year, while ranking in the top 25 throughout the year. Wittenberg finished in the top five in nine of their 10 tournaments, and five Tigers earned 2014 All-NCAC honors in recognition of placing in the top 15 in the NCAC Championship Series.
Roope, who broke new ground in May 2014 as the first person to hold NCAC Coach of the Year designations for the men and women concurrently, has seven letterwinners back on the roster in 2014-15, led by an outstanding senior class, including 2014 All-NCAC honorees Nicole Waers (Canton, Ohio/Perry) and Carolyn Wong (Naperville, Ill./Central). An outstanding freshman class has made a significant impact, led by Jane Hopkinson-Wood (Pottstown, Pa./The Hill School), who has earned medalist honors in two of her first four collegiate competitions.
Click here to follow live scoring of the tournament throughout the weekend.
Written By: Ryan Maurer