COLLEGEVILLE, Pa. – After a record-setting regular season, the Ursinus College women's golf will bring plenty of talent and the expectations to match when the Bears compete in the Centennial Conference championship at Foxchase Golf Club this weekend.
The Bears are coming off the best performance in program history, a 10-stroke loss to five-time defending champion Gettysburg in a dual match in which they posted a 344 to shatter the previous school record by 11 shots. That spectacular effort was just a continuation of a yearlong trend for Ursinus, which has already captured the first three tournament titles in team history, including one at its home invitational last week.
Ursinus has never finished higher than fourth at the conference championship (several times the Bears were unable to field a full squad), but with a reloaded roster stacked with young talent, the bar is set much higher this time around.
Five-time defending champion Gettysburg is the clear favorite, but Ursinus could be the Bullets' top challenger. The Bears rank second in the CC with a team average of 369.7, 22 strokes behind Gettysburg, and boast two of the league's top scorers in freshmen Rebecca Chiger and Emily McGarrigle. Chiger ranks fifth in the CC with an 89.27 average and seven top-10 finishes, while McGarrigle is 10th at 90.91 but enters the weekend on a hot streak. The first-year golfer won the individual title with an 80 at the Bears' recent dual with Gettysburg, edging out reigning CC Player and Rookie of the Year Samantha Sessa, who averages an 80.00 and holds four individual victories this season. McGarrigle's sensational round matched Chiger for the lowest in program history; Chiger accomplished hers at the Revolutionary Collegiate Classic in October, when she also set the school record for lowest two-day score (168).
McGarrigle has registered the Bears' lowest score at each of their last four events, including matching 89s at the Ursinus Spring Invitational on April 12 and a dual against Alvernia four days prior.
Chiger and McGarrigle will be joined in the Ursinus lineup by another pair of underclassmen in freshman Matison Leand and sophomore Sara Thompson and a veteran in senior Rebecca Honor, who paced the Bear contingent with a 192 (T-15th) at the conference tournament a year ago. Thompson carded a career-best 86 in last Sunday's Gettysburg dual, and Leand matched a collegiate best with a 92.
The Bears figure to get a stiff challenge from McDaniel, which ranks third in the CC with a stroke average less than three shots higher than Ursinus.
The first groups are set to tee off at noon on both Saturday and Sunday.