Sept. 4, 2010 Complete Preseason Top-25 | Complete Top-50 Female Golfers To Watch List WINSTON-SALEM, NC - The Wake Forest women's golf team has been ranked No. 8 in the Golf World / National Golf Coaches Association preseason poll. All-Americans Cheyenne Woods and Michelle Shin have also been named to the Golf World Top-50 Female Golfers To Watch List for the second-straight season. The Deacons finished the regular season last spring ranked No. 9 in the final Golf World/NGCA poll but failed to make the NCAA Championships. Wake was also ranked in the preseason top-10 last fall as it held the No. 6 spot. USC opens as the No. 1-ranked team in the country after a runner-up finish at the NCAA Championships last May. Fellow Pac Ten foe UCLA claims the second spot while Purdue (No. 3), Alabama (No. 4) and Duke (No. 5) round out the top-5. Woods and Shin are making their second-straight appearance on the Top-50 Female Golfers To Watch list as both are coming off All-American seasons. Woods won her first collegiate tournament at the Bryan National last spring and finished the year with at 73.47 scoring average, which was the lowest single-season stroke average in school history. She earned second team All-America honors by the NGCA and third team accolades by Golfweek. The Phoenix, Ariz., native also claimed her first All-ACC honors in 2009-10. Shin finished second on the team a year ago to Woods in scoring average at 74.23 and became the first freshman to win the ACC Individual crown since four-time All-American Amanda Blumenhurst of Duke won it in 2006. The Cape Coral, Fla., native then joined Woods this summer to win the Hooters Collegiate Team Championship, coming from behind on the closing stretch to nip Alabama by one shot. Wake also returns a two-time All-American in senior Natalie Sheary. Sheary averaged 75.2 strokes per round last year but had a great summer. She blew away the field at the Connecticut Women's Open, posting the only two under-par rounds and winning the event by eight shots. She tied Suzy Whaley (2002) for the second lowest two round total in Connecticut Women's Open history at 6-under 138.
Sheary then earned medalist honors in her US Women's Amateur qualifier to advance to her fifth-straight women's amateur. She advanced to match play at the amateur for the third-straight year after rounds of 72-73. Senior Allie Bodemann played a role in the Deacons' back-to-back ACC Championships in 2009 and 2010 and will be counted on to produce the same results again in 2011. Junior Hunter Ross sat out the 2009-10 season after transferring from NC State and could challenge for a spot in the lineup this fall. Wake also welcomes three talented freshmen to the squad in Olafia Kristinsdottir, Michelle Hartenstein and Brooke Rohrbach. The season will begin on Sept. 13, at the NCAA Fall Preview in College Station, Texas, at the Traditions Club, site of the 2011 NCAA Women's Golf Championships. |
