The Wake Forest women’s golf team finished ninth in the Evans Derby Experience tournament in Auburn, Alabama above Ole Miss, Mississippi St. and the University of Michigan. Coming in first for the Deacs was junior Jennifer Kupcho from Westminister, Colo. with a three-day combined score of 213, landing her twelfth in the tournament.
The Deacs’ ninth-place finish came after two days of being tied for eighth place with Louisville.
Finishing first in the tournament was junior Maria Fassi of the Arkansas Razorbacks, with a three-day combined score of 202.
Prior to this, the Wake Forest finished third in the Darius Rucker Intercollegiate tournament in Hilton Head Island, SC, only placing behind Alabama and Arkansas in a pool of contestants described as a pretty competitive field.
Heading the scoreboards for the Demon Deacons was Emilia Migliaccio, shooting 70-71-72 in each of the three rounds to finish third overall with a score of 213. Migliaccio, a freshman from Cary, NC, attended Athens Drive High School and is a three-time Rolex Junior All-American. She was also the recipient of a first-team selection in 2016.
The Deacs now look forward to the Bryan National Collegiate tournament in Browns Summit, NC before preparing for the ACC Championship which will be held in Greensboro, NC.
The team hopes the momentum established in the success of these last two tournaments will push them forward towards even greater achievement in both regionals and nationals. Currently leading the conference standings is The University of North Carolina in first place followed by Duke in second.
The Demon Deacons currently stand seventh in the conference.
Particularly notable to the tale of the women’s golf team is the story of golfer Monica Schumacher. Schumacher is a junior from Orlando, FL, and up until April of her sophomore year was only a member of the university’s club team. It was when the team suffered from multiple injuries that she was asked to join the program just in time to make her debut in the ACC Championship, where she finished 60th as the team finished in 12th place, dead last.
Moving forward from the discouraging finish of the 2017 spring season, Schumacher is much more optimistic of where the team is now and is proud of their improved performance. Junior Mai Dechathipat and sophomore Siyun Liu are largely responsible for this change in perspective, having just transferred in for the 2017-2018 season at Wake Forest after spending time on the golf teams at Auburn University and University of Illinois, respectively. Schumacher describes their presence as being very helpful to team performance and atmosphere. With the ACC Championships and NCAA Tournament quickly approaching, Schumacher is excited to see what’s to come of the program as incoming recruits appear promising and the comradery of the team continues to grow under the direction of Head Coach Dianna Dailey and Assistant Coach Ryan Potter.
Perhaps foreshadowing the future success of the team in seasons to come is the recent announcement that team members Migliaccio and Kupcho have been named to the 2018 United States Palmer Cup Team.
This honor will allow them to compete alongside other top collegiate golfers from the U.S. as they face the best collegiate golfers from all over Europe at the Evian Resort Gold Club in France this summer.
