Lady Muleriders are picked sixth in golf

Leed considered for 2018 NCAA Woman of the Year Award

The Great American Conference continued its preseason coaches poll announcements on Thursday with the release of the women’s golf preseason rankings.

Filling in at No. 6 in the 2018 GAC Women’s Golf Preseason Coaches Poll is Southern Arkansas, who received thirty total points, while being locked in at just ten points back from a fourth-place ranking.

Head golf coach Ben Sanders, who is entering his third year leading the programs at SAU, isn’t daunted by the preseason ranking. “I’m not really concerned with that [ranking],” remarked Sanders. He added, “Lots of things can happen between now and May and we are going to stay focused on improving what we do each and every day.”

The Lady Muleriders enter the 2018 campaign featuring a young squad with just two returners from a season ago: the team’s lone senior in Bailey Carr and sophomore Olivia Faught.

Newcomers include four true freshmen in Kensey Dukes, Peyton Gasaway, Mackenzy Turner and Klarissa Villanueva, who all had standout careers in the prep ranks.

In 18 rounds played as a junior, Carr’s score counted 11 times and she produced the team’s low score in two of those rounds, while also shooting in the 70s four times.

For Faught, she played in all twenty of the team’s rounds last year as a true freshman with her score counting 10 times toward the team total including one round with the team’s low score.

Despite the overall inexperience and untapped potential of this season’s squad, Sanders isn’t concerned with the Lady Muleriders’ youth. “They’re an eager group,” stated Sanders. “We have four freshmen coming in that I really think will ignite the returners that are coming back and despite the loss of our program’s most decorated golfer in Helle [Leed], I think we will do a lot of good things collectively this season.”

As Sanders noted, SAU will be tasked with filling the void left by Helle Leed, who concluded her ornamented career as a Lady Mulerider this past spring.

During her time in Magnolia, Leed challenged and changed the standard for women’s golfers at SAU as she qualified for the Central Region Tournament three times as an individual and was named the GAC’s Women’s Golfer of the Week three times as well, while also winning a pair of fall tournaments and setting a 54-hole program record at the GAC Championships as a senior.

Most importantly, Leed became the first SAU golfer in the program’s Division II Era (1995-96) to qualify and compete at the NCAA DII National Championships.

Leed has been chosen as one of two nominees from the Great American Conference (GAC) to continue on in the selection process for the 2018 NCAA Woman of the Year Award as it was announced by the NCAA on Thursday. It honors graduating female college athletes who have distinguished themselves throughout their collegiate careers in the areas of academics, athletics, service and leadership.

The Top 30 honorees will be celebrated and the 2018 NCAA Woman of the Year will be named at the annual banquet Oct. 28 in Indianapolis

The Lady Muleriders open the fall portion of their 2018-19 season on Sept. 24-25 at the Oklahoma Baptist Fall Invitational on the course of the Shawnee Country Club in Shawnee, Oklahoma.

Upcoming Events