VIRGINIA BEACH, Va. – The Penn State women's golf team is looking to continue its strong start to the fall season as they hit the road for the Evie Odom Invitational hosted by Old Dominion University at the Princess Anne Country Club this week.
With weather expected later this week due to Hurricane Ian's landfall, the tournament schedule has been pushed up. The teams will have a 1:30 p.m. shotgun start for round one on Thursday afternoon and plan to conclude the tournament on Friday with a 36-hole day pending on the weather.
The Nittany Lions will begin play tomorrow on holes 4-7 and be paired with Indiana and Minnesota.
Live scoring for the event is available HERE.
LAST TIME OUT
- Penn State last tee'd it up two weeks ago at the Nittany Lion Invitational taking first-place with a 3-under finish.
- The win marked the second-straight for the Nittany Lions and fifth in the last seven chances at their home invitational. It was also the 25th overall victory in 46 chances on the Penn State Golf Courses.
- With the entire 11-player roster competing, Penn State saw seven players crack the top-20 including each of the five represented in the team lineup.
- The Nittany Lions were paced by Mathilde Delavallade who secured her second top-3 finish in two events this season with a solo third place finish at 2-under.
- Sophomore Michelle Cox secured her best career finish tying for fourth with teammate Sarah Willis at 1-over for the week while classmate Drew Nienhaus also had a career-best finish at 4-over and in a tie for 11th with Isha Dhruva.
- The Nittany Lions opened the final day with an 11-shot lead over Boston College, however, after a rocky first nine holes they relinquished the top spot at the turn before finding their stroke and coming in strong finishing 2-over on the day and 3-under for the championship.
- Penn State had three clean cards on the back-nine in the final round and went 8-under as a team over that stretch of the tournament.
THE TEAM
- Penn State didn't make any changes from the lineup that secured the top spot at the Nittany Lion Invitational as Delavallade, Willis, Nienhaus, Cox and Dhruva will each make the trip south this week.
- Delavallade paces the team with a sub-70 stroke average of 69.83 with five of her six rounds this season being at par or better leading to her back-to-back top-3 finishes.
- Willis is second on the team with a 72.17 stroke average while Nienhaus is at 73.17 through two events this fall.
COURSE & TOURNAMENT OVERVIEW
- The par-70 layout spans 5,824 yards and features four par-5s along with six challenging par-3s.
- Opening in 2008, the first-rate golf course winds through stands of stately pines and live oaks and along narrow waterways.
- This year will mark the fourth time the ODU women's golf program has hosted a collegiate tournament at the Princess Anne Country Club with the 2022 event serving as the second year under the name Evie Odom Invitational.
- Tournament namesake, Evie Odom, made the largest contribution to a women's sport in the history of ODU Athletics. Her support of ODU women's golf and specifically this tournament gives the team a tremendous boost in their ability to compete nationally.
THE FIELD
- A total of 15 teams and six individuals makes up the 81-player field set to compete.
- Charlotte, Coastal Carolina, College of Charleston, East Carolina, High Point, Indiana, James Madison, Middle Tennessee State, Minnesota, North Florida, Old Dominion, Penn State, Princeton, Sacramento State, and South Florida make up the full field.
NEXT UP
Penn State takes the next four weeks off before closing out the fall portion of its schedule at the Landfall Tradition over Halloween Weekend.