Bucknell University Athletics
Bucknell Women's Golf Earns No. 2 Seed at Big South Championship
4/8/2011 8:00:00 AM | Women's Golf
April 8, 2011
LEWISBURG, Pa. -- There is little question that the Bucknell women's golf team is enjoying its best season yet, but the Bison have a chance to stamp an exclamation point on the terrific campaign with a strong showing at the Big South Championship, presented by Musco Sports Lighting, which starts Monday at The Patriot Club in Ninety-Six, S.C. Bucknell is the No. 2 seed in the championship, its highest ever.
The Patriot Club is hosting the Big South Women's Golf Championship for the fifth time, as the course hosted the event in 2005, 2008, 2009 and 2010. Following a practice round on Sunday, the three-day, 54-hole event gets underway on Monday with 18 holes each day. For the opening round, second-seeded Bucknell will be paired with No. 1 Coastal Carolina and No. 3 Gardner-Webb, with tee times for those threesomes beginning at 9:40 a.m.
Fans can follow the action online via GolfStat's "Live Scoring" feature. The 2011 champion will receive the Big South's automatic berth to the NCAA Regionals.
Tournament seedings are based on current Golfweek national rankings. Coastal Carolina is ranked No. 40 and drew the No. 1 seed. Bucknell is next with a ranking of 144, followed by Gardner-Webb (162), Radford (172), Winthrop (189), defending champion Charleston Southern (196), High Point (212) and Holy Cross (245). Presbyterian, which has a ranking of 200, is participating but is not eligible to win the championship until 2013 as it continues its transition to Division I.
The Bison are coming off a strong fourth-place finish in a 22-team field at the C&F Bank Intercollegiate, hosted by William & Mary. In the fall, Bucknell won both the Wendy's Invitational in Charleston, S.C., and the Bucknell Invitational, in addition to a runner-up finish at the Rutgers Invitational and a third-place finish at the Zippy Invitational in Akron, Ohio.
All of Bucknell's 18, 36 and 54-hole school records have fallen this season. The team posted a score of 296 twice in the fall, once at the par-70 Bucknell Golf club and once at the par-72 Penn State Blue Course. They smashed the 36-hole record with a 602 (304-298) at the Wendy's Invitational, and the 54-hole mark fell at the Bucknell Invitational when the Bison shot 903 (303-304-296).
Those records piled up even with Kevin Jamieson's lineup featuring three freshmen, to go along with established veterans Katie Jurenovich and Minjoo Lee.
Jurenovich, a senior, is a two-time Big South Player of the Week in 2010-11, and her 77.7 scoring average leads the team and ranks sixth in the conference. Jurenovich, who won the Bucknell Invitational back in Septemeber, has been on the cusp of earning All-Big South honors in both of her previous two championship appearances. She finished T-8th as a freshman in 2008 and T-9th last season, just missing all-conference honors. Her second-round 73 at The Patriot Club a year ago was a career best, until she broke that mark with a 70 earlier this season. Jurenovich had to withdraw from the 2009 Big South Championship due to illness.
Lee had a breakthrough performance at the 2010 Big South Championship. She led the tournament after each of the first two rounds, becoming the first Bison player to do so, and she ended up in fourth place. That was the best finish by a Bucknell golfer at the event, and also earned her a spot on the all-conference team. Also the 2010 Big South Women's Golf Scholar-Athlete of the Year, Lee opened with a 2-under-par 70, the first sub-par round in program history. She followed it up with a 74 before finishing with an 80.
Lee posted a team-best 76.9 scoring average in the fall, just missing her own school record, and her full-season average is now 78.0, the 11th-best mark in the league. She was the medalist at the Wendy's Invitational in October, one of four top-20 finishes this season.
The Bison have benefitted tremendously from the strong work of three first-year players: Lauren Bernard, Kasha Scott and Bridget Wilcox.
All three have been remarkably consistent, with scoring averages ranging from 80.0 to 80.7. Scott's 80.0 average ranks 20th in the Big South, giving Bucknell three players ranked in the top 20 for the first time in program history.
Scott has five top-20 finishes this year, headlined by a T-2nd (73-74) at the Wendy's Invitational and a T-8th at the Rutgers Invitational. She posted a 1-over 73 at Wisconsin's Badger Invitational in the fall as well as a 2-over 72 in the final round of the Bucknell Invitational.
Bernard has an 80.4 average and has played well this spring, highlighted by a second-round 76 at the Jackrabbit Invitational in Nevada. Her top finish is T-8th at the Rutgers Invitational, and her low round in relation to par is a 2-over 74 at Penn State. She also posted a 3-over 73 at the Bucknell Invitational.
Wilcox made history in October when she became the first Bison ever to post a round in the 60s with a school-record, 3-under 69 at Penn State's Nittany Lion Invitational. That is the third-lowest score by any Big South player this season, trailing only a 66 and a 68 from Coastal Carolina's Jessica Alexander.
Wilcox was Bucknell's low finisher (T-16th) in that event, and last month she was the team's No. 2 finisher at the Jackrabbit Invitational with rounds of 78-76-77. Wilcox has an 80.7 overall average, including a 79.8 mark in the spring.
This is also the first time in program history that the Bison have had three players -- Jurenovich, Lee and Scott -- record multiple top-10 finishes in one season.
The Big South Women's Golf Awards Banquet will be held on Monday evening. The 2011 annual award winners, the All-Academic Team and half of the All-Big South team (based on regular-season performance) will be announced at that time, while the remaining all-conference performers will be determined by their finish in the championship.
This will be Bucknell's ninth appearance at the Big South Championship. Its best finish was fourth in 2008. The Bison have finished sixth in each of the last two seasons.
