CHARLESTON, S.C. – The Penn State women's golf team concludes its week-long southern swing at the ninth-annual Briar's Creek Invitational hosted by the College of Charleston at the Golf Club at Briar's Creek on Monday and Tuesday.
The Nittany Lions have been in the field at each of the previous eight Briar's Creek Invitationals finishing fourth in 2018 and as high as second in 2014. Penn State is poised for another strong showing at the par-72, 6,116-yard course this week.
Live scoring for the duration of the tournament will be available HERE.
THE FIELD
- The host College of Charleston looks to defend its title against 17 additional teams this week headlined by several teams from Power 5 Conferences. The field features three teams that have been ranked inside the top 25 this year; Michigan, Illinois, and UCF. Ten teams from the field were also represented at the NCAA Regionals last season.
- Along with Penn State the aforementioned Wolverines and Illini join from the Big Ten as well as Indiana, Minnesota, Wisconsin and Nebraska as seven Big Ten teams make the trek down south this week.
- Boston College, Campbell, Charleston Southern, Colorado, East Carolina, Kansas, N.C. State, Old Dominion, Tulane and UCF round out the field of 18.
- The College of Charleston's Viktoria Hund will try to break a few trends as she looks to defend her individual title. The Briar's Creek Invitational has never had a two-time winner. Furthermore, no school has had multiple individual winners. The medalist has been from eight different schools in eight years. Michigan State's Allyson Geer-Park owns the individual tournament record with a 13 under par 203 in 2019.
THE TEAM
- The Nittany Lions lineup will feature seniors Sarah Willis (Eaton, Ohio) and Taylor Waller (Canonsburg, Pa.) as well as junior classmates Mathilde Delavallade (Royan, France) and Isha Dhruva (Katy, Texas) along with freshmen Drew Nienhaus (St. Louis, Mo.) in the starting lineup.
- Dhruva is coming off the best showing of her career at the UNF Collegiate last week where she finished fourth at 4-under, 212, to tie for the sixth-lowest 54-hole score in program history.
- Delavallade leads the team with a pair of top-five finishes including her Individual Medalist honor at the Nittany Lion Invitational. The junior's 73.10 stroke average is also tops on the team ahead of Willis' 73.22 average.
- Following her strong showing last week, Dhruva has bettered her stroke average to 74.71 this season as she is one of just three individuals to compete in all eight events so far this season joining Delavallade and Nienhaus.
NEXT UP
Penn State will have another month off between events as the Nittany Lions next tee it up at the Lady Buckeye Invitational on April 15-16 for their last tune up before the B1G Championships on April 22-24.