4/10/2014 12:00:00 AM

Camels top seed in Big South Women's Golf Championship

BUIES CREEK, N.C. – Ranked No.-53 in the latest Golfstat national ratings, Campbell is the top seed for the 2014 Big South Conference women's golf championship. The 54-hole event begins Sunday and continues through Tuesday at The Patriot Golf Club in Ninety Six, S.C.

Campbell has already won four times this season, including a 15-stroke victory Apr. 1 in its last outing, the John Kirk Panther Intercollegiate. CU also claimed the Golfweek Program Challenge, Big South Preview and Fighting Camel Classic last fall.

"Coastal Carolina is playing well, and I'd like to think we're playing well after our victory, but the whole conference has gotten better," said Campbell head coach John Crooks, whose team has finished either first or second in its league in 20 of his 22 years in charge of the women's program. "High Point has had a record-setting year and they've got some very good players."

The Camels will be paired with second-seeded Coastal Carolina (No.-85) and third seed High Point (No.-93) in Sunday's first round on the par-72, 6083-yard Patriot layout. Campbell won the 2012 championship at the site, while finishing second to Coastal in last year's event. The 2014 championship marks the eighth time overall and the seventh in a row that The Patriot has hosted the tournament.

"It's an honor to be seeded number-one and nice to be undefeated against the conference schools we've faced this year, but all of that is in the past," said Crooks. "Just like March Madness, it's a whole new tournament. We look forward to the competition and expect our ladies to be competitive."

Crooks will send a lineup to South Carolina that includes five of the league's top-11 leaders in stroke average.

Senior Kaylin Yost, the 2012 Big South golfer of the year and a two-time all-league performer, leads the conference with a 73.37 stroke average, has two victories and five total top-10 individual finishes. According to Golfstat, the Fort Lauderdale, Fla., resident ranks seventh in the country in short game percentage (.629), 15th in birdies (75), while standing 89th nationally in the Golfstat Cup ranking.

Yost shared individual honors at the Fighting Camel Fall Classic and John Kirk Panther Intercollegiate this year and tied her collegiate career low with a second-round 67 at the Georgia State event. As a freshman, she tied for seventh in the 2011 Atlantic Sun Conference Championship, tied for second in the 2012 Big South Championship and tied for 13th in the 2013 Big South tourney.

Lisbeth Brooks rates fifth in the Big South in stroke average (74.7), and stands 221st nationally in the Golfstat Cup. The Waunakee, Wis., junior is tied for 38th in the country with 67 birdies over 27 rounds. She has five top-10 finishes this season, including a fourth-place finish at the Fighting Camel Fall Classic and sixth-place showings at The Patriot Big South Preview and John Kirk Panther Intercollegiate.

A two-time all-league performer and the 2012 Big South freshman of the year, Brooks was seventh in the 2012 conference championship and sixth in last year's event.

Sophomore Tahnia Ravnjak is sixth in the league with a 74.88 stroke average and stands 231st in the Golfstat Cup. The 2013 Big South freshman of the year has produced four top-10 showings this year, including her first collegiate win at the Golfweek Program Challenge, where she carded a career-low 66 in the final round. A native of Cordeaux Heights, Australia, Ravnjak tied for fourth in the 2013 Big South tournament and earned all-championship team honors in the process.

Freshman Nadine White of Brisbane, Australia has produced a pair of top-20 individual showings in her first three collegiate tournaments. She owns a 75.6 stroke average and is coming off a 15th-place effort at the John Kirk Panther Intercollegiate. White shot a season-low 70 in just her second collegiate round last month at the Miami Hurricane Invitational.

Fellow freshman Louise Latorre ranks 11th among Big South golfers with a 76.5 stroke average and is tied for 31st nationally in greens in regulation percentage (.703). The product of Pau, France has three top-20 individual finishes this year, including a 10th-place tie at The Patriot Big South Preview.

Senior Ali Prazak has compiled the seventh-lowest stroke average in the league (74.86) this year. A product of St. Thomas, U.S. Virgin Islands, Prazak was runner-up at the Golfweek Program Challenge, tied for sixth at the Big South Preview and tied for eighth at the Fighting Camel Fall Classic.

Big South Conference Women's Golf Championship
The Patriot GC / Ninety Six, S.C.
Apr. 13-15, 2014 / Par 72, 6083 Yards

Schedule of Events
Saturday, April 12 / 1:00 pm / Practice Round (Shotgun format)
Sunday, April 13 / 8:00 am / First Round
8:00-8:40 am / #7 Charleston Southern, #8 Radford, #9 Presbyterian
8:50-9:30 am / #4 Winthrop, #5 Longwood, #6 Gardner-Webb
9:40-10:20 am / #1 Campbell, #2 Coastal Carolina, #3 High Point
Monday, April 14 / 8:00 am / Second Round
Tuesday, April 15 / 8:00 am / Final Round

Campbell Women's Golf Conference Championship history
Year / Conference / Finish
1990 / Big South / 3rd of 4 teams
1991 / Big South / 4th of 4
1992 # / Big South / 2nd of 5
1993 / Big South / 1st of 6
1994 / Big South / 1st of 6
1995 / Atlantic Sun / 2nd of 9
1996 / Atlantic Sun / 1st of 10
1997 / Atlantic Sun / 1st of 10
1998 / Atlantic Sun / 1st of 11
1999 / Atlantic Sun / 2nd of 11
2000 / Atlantic Sun / 2nd of 10
2001 / Atlantic Sun / 1st of 10
2002 / Atlantic Sun / 1st of 11
2003 / Atlantic Sun / 6th of 12
2004 / Atlantic Sun / 1st of 11
2005 / Atlantic Sun / 2nd of 11
2006 / Atlantic Sun / 1st of 9
2007 / Atlantic Sun / 1st of 8
2008 / Atlantic Sun / 2nd of 8
2009 / Atlantic Sun / 2nd of 10
2010 / Atlantic Sun / T3rd of 10
2011 / Atlantic Sun / 2nd of 10
2012 / Big South / 1st of 10
2013 / Big South / 2nd of 9