UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa. – The Penn State women's golf team is looking to defend their Nittany Lion Invitational Crown this weekend at the Penn State Blue Course.
Penn State has won back-to-back home invitationals since the event returned after a one year hiatus in 2020 due to the Coivd-19 pandemic. The Nittany Lions have won five of the last seven NLI's that have been held.
Live scoring for the weekend can be found HERE.
ABOUT THE NLI
- The first-ever Nittany Lion Invitational was played in 1974 with this weekend marking the 24th consecutive NLI to be contested during the fall season.
- Overall, the tournament has been held in the fall 33 times while taking place during the spring season on 13 different occasions with the last being in 1999.
- Including the 2022 NLI, Penn State has captured 25 tournament crowns including seven of the last 11 and five of seven with the only two they haven't won over that stretch being runner-up finishes.
- Penn State has had 15 individual medalists with the last being Mathilde Delavallade in 2021.
- Recent graduate Sarah Willis '22 holds the tournament record of 11-under (205) from her win in 2018 while Delavallade fell just one stroke shy during her 10-under (206) victory in 2021.
- Penn State's 2018 final round score of 9-under, 279, is the second lowest 18-hole total in school history.
COUGAR CLASSIC RECAP
- Junior Drew Nienhaushad a spectacular day of golf on Tuesday finishing her last 20 holes at 4-under par. Nienhaus turned in cards of 70 (1-under) and 69 (2-under) on Tuesday finishing the week tied for 28th at 3-under, 210, for the championship moving up 11 spots following an opening round even-par, 71. Nienhaus' 3-under par score marks the lowest 54-hole score of her Nittany Lion career.
- Junior Michelle Cox (Allentown, Pa.) started the week strong with a 2-under, 69, in the first round en route to an even-par, 213, finish and a tie for 39th in the 96-player field finishing the week with an even-par, 71, on Tuesday afternoon.
- Graduate transfer Carlota Garcia (Salamanca, Spain) and junior Jami Morris (Chagrin Falls, Ohio) each carded their best rounds of the week on Tuesday afternoon with a 2-over, 73, and a 4-over, 75, respectively, to round out the countable team scores.
THE FIELD
- This year's field consists of the host Nittany Lions as well as 9 additional teams from the Northeast and Midwest.
- Those schools represented this weekend are Akron, Boston College, Central Michigan, Eastern Kentucky, High Point, James Madison, Penn State, Richmond, Navy and Youngstown State.
- Each school will start five golfers with the four lowest scores counting toward the team total. One individual from Penn State along with single individuals from Akron, Eastern Kentucky, Richmond and Youngstown State as well as a pair of individuals from James Madison round out the 57-player field.
- The Nittany Lions will be paired with Richmond and Eastern Kentucky for the first 36 holes on Saturday and will go off holes one through three with a 9 a.m. shotgun start.
THE TEAM
- Penn State's starting five will feature four of the five players who participated in the Cougar Classic led junior classmates Drew Nienhaus and Michelle Cox while graduate student Carlota Garcia and junior Jami Morris each remain in the lineup while senior Victoria Tip-Aucha slots in to replace sophomore Myranda Quinton who will place the weekend as an individual.
NEXT UP
Penn State takes a few weeks off before returning to the links with a trip to Norfolk, Virginia and the Evie Odom Invitational on October 6-8.