-- Story provided by Saint Mary's College Athletics --
NOTRE DAME, Ind. - The Saint Mary's golf team is set to make the program's eleventh all-time team appareance in the NCAA Division III Championships this week at Bay Oaks Country Club in Houston, Texas.
Key Links and Information
The Belles Lineup
Scoring and Schedule
The championships will consist of both team and individual competition conducted concurrently. Following 54 holes of competition, the field will be cut to the top 15 teams and top six individuals not on one of those teams to compete the final day. In the team competition, the low four scores from each team for each day will count in the team's total score.
Saint Mary's tees off day one starting at 12:50 p.m. CDT. Isa Patacsil starts the round for the Belles on hole No. 10. Haley Angel tees off at 1:00, followed by Katherine Hopkins (1:10), Erin Bennett (1:20), and Sydney Hruskoci (1:30). Saint Mary's will have morning tee times on Wednesday for round two beginning at 8:10 a.m. CDT. Teams are re-seeded based on standings for tee times over the final two rounds of play.
How the Belles Arrived in Houston
The Belles worked to overcome an early deficit in the Fall 2021 conference standings as Saint Mary's tied for sixth in the opening MIAA jamboree of the season. The team cut strokes off of their 18-hole rounds in each successive MIAA round, captured first place at the second-to-last 18-hole event of the conference season, and edged third-place Adrian by 11 strokes to finish second in the final conference standings.
By virtue of that top-two placement, Saint Mary's earned the right to host the first of three 18-hole rounds in the spring which would determine the MIAA's automatic qualifier to the 2022 NCAA Championships. Having gained valuable experience playing in unfavorable weather this spring at the WashU Spring Invitational, the Illinois Wesleyan Kathy Niepagen Spring Fling, and the Bethel Pilot Invitational, the Belles finished 17 strokes ahead of the field on their home course at Knollwood Country Club to take an early lead in the AQ standings.
Three days later, the team battled heavy downpours and prevailed on the first of two rounds hosted at fall MIAA Champion Hope's home course of Clearbrook Golf Club. The Belles were 14 strokes ahead of the field to extend their lead. Saint Mary's then capped off the AQ rounds with their third win and a spring season-low 311 to finish 19 strokes ahead of the field and secure the MIAA automatic qualifier by 56 strokes. The team established a new MIAA record for the best mark for a 56-hole total for the AQ with a 960.
Last Time in Texas
Saint Mary's competed in the 2019 NCAA Championships at Bay Oak Country Club. The team made a big jump on day three with a 313 to move above the cut line and earn a spot on day four of competiiton. The Belles finished the 2019 Championships in 14th place overall. Senior captain
Sydney Hruskoci was a key member of that squad, and she tied for 58th overall with a 322.
The Field
The 2022 NCAA Division III Championships are set to be one of the most competitive fields in the history of the event. Sixteen of the top 18-ranked teams in NCAA Division III women's golf will be competing while eight teams ranked in the latest Top 25 poll did not make the field in this year's event. Defending national champion Methodist enters the tournament as the fourth-seeded team while Emory, Carnegie Mellon, and Williams are in the top three seeded spots, respectively. Saint Mary's enters the tournament seeded 21st.
