Bucknell Women's Golf Through the Decades, Presented by Geisinger

LEWISBURG, Pa. -- In the fall of 1998, women's golf and women's water polo became the latest additions to Bucknell's array of varsity sports. The women's golf program had a natural fit for a head coach already on staff in associate athletic director Brad Tufts, who had served Bucknell in a variety of roles dating back to 1959. One of those posts was head men's golf coach from 1967-75, where he led the Bison to a pair of Middle Atlantic Conference championships and an 80-38 dual-match record. Tufts, an avid golfer (and Bucknell GC champion) himself, had taken a few women students to local tournaments before the formal varsity appointment in 1998, and the first varsity roster included a senior and four sophomores, along with a pair of freshmen who quickly made their mark as the team's top players.

Hilary Mainka and Bridget O'Mara both played on boys teams in high school, and they were Bucknell's top two finishers in just about every tournament that first season. Mainka's final-round 80 at the ECAC Championship was the team's best of the inaugural campaign, and O'Mara recorded the program's first hole-in-one at the Princeton Invitational.

The following year, an outstanding batch of recruits featuring the likes of Jess Hetrich, Molly Campbell, Amy Jones and Catherine Crews infused more depth and talent into the program, and Bucknell Women's Golf was off and running.

In the fall of 2000, Tufts handed the program over to his assistant, Lewisburg native Kevin Jamieson, who kept the Bison on their upward ascent. Bucknell hosted an invitational tournament for the first time in the spring of 2001, and in 2002 Hetrich made history by becoming the team's first-ever medalist when she won the Bucknell Invitational by two strokes.

The evolution of the program took another turn in December 2002, when the Bison joined a conference for the first time, affiliating with the Big South. Bucknell took sixth in its first Big South Championship appearance in April 2003 and finished as high as third in 2011. The Patriot League began sponsoring women's golf in 2012-13, and Bucknell joined Lehigh, Holy Cross and Navy for the league's inaugural season. The Bison hosted the 2013 Patriot League Championship and placed second to Lehigh by just three strokes. Just one year later, Bucknell captured its very first conference title in the sport of women's golf, holding off Boston University by three strokes to win the 2014 Patriot League Championship at Saucon Valley CC.

Lisa Francisco is now in her fifth season as head coach after succeeding Jamieson in 2016, and she has seen the individual fall-season scoring records drop in each of the last three years. Over the course of this week, Francisco will be joined by many of the top players who helped shape the history of the Bison women's golf program, and be on the lookout for a special appearance by Brad Tufts. Special thanks to Geisinger for sponsoring the series, and we hope you enjoy this trip back Through the Decades.

1990s
As mentioned in the introduction above, varsity golf debuted at Bucknell in the fall of 1998. The first official competition was a double dual match with Mount St. Mary's and Saint Francis (Pa.) on Sept. 15, 1998 at the Bucknell Golf Club. Led by an 82 from Hilary Mainka, the Bison posted a 382 team score and easily defeated Mount St. Mary's while finishing 19 strokes behind Saint Francis. Later that fall, the team played in invitationals hosted by Dartmouth, Princeton and Rutgers, and Bucknell held its own, finishing in the middle of the pack against more established competition. The Bison also competed at the ECAC Championship for the first time and finished T-17th out of 21 teams, with Mainka again leading the way. Mainka, a 2002 graduate, is one of three original team members on today's chat, along with Chris Boschen '99 and Heather Mann '01. Also joining us is Molly Campbell '03, who joined the program in year two and went on to a standout career, and Hall-of-Famer Brad Tufts, who is responsible for organizing a women's golf team at Bucknell, elevating the program to varsity status, and coaching the team in its first two varsity seasons.

2000s
When the decade of the 2000s got started, the Bison women's golf program was still in its infancy, but already the team was competing in tournaments hosted by the likes of Dartmouth, Princeton, Rutgers, William & Mary and Boston College. Kevin Jamieson was named head coach in the summer of 2000, and Jamieson began to expand the team's tournament footprint farther south, with a number of tournaments in Virginia and the Carolinas. That coincided with the program's first conference affiliation in the Big South -- the Patriot League was not yet sponsoring women's golf -- and meant the Bison were now league rivals with strong golf squads such as UNC Wilmington, Coastal Carolina and Charleston Southern. Bucknell finished sixth among nine teams in its first-ever Big South Championship at Sea Trail Resort in North Carolina. The following season the Bison got a boost from a French exchange student named Celine Herbin, who was with the team for only one season but quickly posted the best scores in team history and finished T-11th in her lone Big South Championship appearance at Greenwood CC in South Carolina. Herbin turned pro in 2009 and is now a member of the LPGA Tour and Ladies European Tour, where she has two career victories. Freshman Amy Loughney finished T-5th at the 2005 Big South Championship, the team's best individual performance of the decade, and the best team finish came in 2008, when top-20 efforts from Katie Jurenovich (T-8th), Emily Chiodo (15th), Kristen Phalen (17th) and Loughney (T-19th) helped the Bison to a fourth-place standing at The Patriot at Grand Harbor in South Carolina. In October of 2008, Minjoo Lee made history by becoming the first Bucknell player to shoot even par or better in a round when she posted 72 at the Rutgers Invitational. Five outstanding alumnae join us on today's chat: Jess Hetrich '03, Teri Schlang '07, Chiodo '08, Loughney '08 and Deirdre Moran '09. Hetrich was part of Brad Tufts' original recruiting class and led the team in scoring average three times while also becoming the first Bison to win a tournament. Her senior year was Bucknell's first season in the Big South, and she finished 24th at the Big South Championship while earning Academic All-Conference honors. Schlang, who was also a competitive ski racer, finished as high as 18th at the Big South Championship and was also a member of the Academic All-Conference Team as a senior. She was the team's low scorer in the spring of 2005. Chiodo's 15th-place finish at that 2008 Big South tourney was the best of her career, and she was an Academic All-Conference selection as well in 2008. Loughney earned two All-Big South citations, including her freshman season after that fifth-place performance. She led the squad in scoring average four times. Moran was the team's top scorer in the fall of 2005, and she placed as high as 22nd in the Big South Championship. Current senior Erin Holmes joins Lisa Francisco in hosting today's panel.

2010s
In our first episode we welcome back five standout players from the most recent decade of the 2000s: Minjoo Lee '12, Kasha Scott '14, Bridget Wilcox '14, Lindsay Dodovich '18 and Katie Childers '19. Lee, Scott and Wilcox were not only record-setters in their own right, but they were all in the lineup in 2011 at The Patriot at Grand Harbor in South Carolina when the Bison finished a best-ever third in the loaded Big South Conference. Lee finished as high as fourth in the Big South in 2010 to earn all-conference honors, and she was the Big South Scholar-Athlete of the Year in both 2010 and 2011. She led the team in scoring average four times, and her 2-under 70 at the 2010 Big South Championship was a school record at the time and now ranks No. 2 behind Wilcox, who fired a 3-under 69 at the Penn State Blue Course the following October. Wilcox finished T-13th in Bucknell's final Big South Championship appearance in 2012, and then she was runner-up in the inaugural Patriot League Championship in 2013. She followed that up with a fourth-place finish in 2014, making her a two-time All-Patriot League honoree. Scott finished T-16th in Bucknell's third-place finish at the BSC in 2011, second on the squad behind only Lauren Bernard's runner-up effort, and then Scott posted a pair of fifth-place finishes in Bucknell's first two forays in the Patriot League. Scott and Wilcox were both part of the first championship team in 2014, when the Bison took the title at Saucon Valley CC. Dodovich and Childers were also top-10 PL finishers in more recent years. Dodovich finished ninth in both 2016 and 2017 to earn a pair of all-league medals. She owns a share of the second-best 18-hole score in team history with three different 70s on three different courses. She led the team in scoring average six times, and her 76.8 in the fall of 2017 was a school record at the time. Childers broke that mark in the fall of her senior year with a 76.1 average (current senior Casey Morrow broke it again with a 75.6 last fall). Childers best Patriot League finish was fifth in 2018 at the U.S. Naval Academy GC. Coach Lisa Francisco and first-year team member Morgan Sohosky lead today's chat.

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Bucknell Women's Golf Through the Decades, Presented by Geisinger

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