April 16, 2003
COLLEGE PARK, Md. -
After back-to-back second-place finishes at the Hatter Spring Fling and the JMU/Bonnie Hoover Invitational, the Maryland women's golf team returns to the course one last time this season for the ACC Championship April 18-20 in Clemmons, N.C. The tournament will take place at the par-72, 6,411-yard Salem Glen Country Club. "There's no pressure on us," head coach Jason Rodenhaver said. "We're playing in perhaps the hardest conference in the country, so it will be good experience for us to see the best."
Seniors Erin Clasper (North Potomac, Md.) and Carter Crowther (Kilmarnock, Va.), juniors Marie Harper (West Point, Va.) and Stacey Wolejko (Hatfield, Mass.) and sophomore Kristen Shew. (Hockessin, Del.) will compete for the third straight tournament.
The Terps will tee off in the first group, which also includes North Carolina and Florida State, at 7:30 a.m. Friday. The second and third rounds are scheduled to begin at 8:30 a.m. Saturday and Sunday, respectively. Each team will complete 54 holes over the three days.
The Terps have not faced any of their five ACC foes this year. They were scheduled to meet at the Chrysler ACC/SEC Challenge in September, but Maryland was forced to withdraw because of inclement weather.
The ACC is home to four of the nation's top 25 women's golf teams. Duke is the number one team in the country, while Wake Forest ranks 13th, Florida State 22nd and North Carolina 24th. NC State ranks 38th.
Nine of the nation's top 40 individuals also play in the ACC, including five from Duke (Virada Nirapathpongporn , 7; Elizabeth Janangelo, 12; Leigh Anne Hardin, 14; Kristina Engstrom, 24; and Niloufar Aazam-Zanganeh, 28), two from Wake Forest (Nuria Clau, 9; and Maria Beautell, 39), one from Florida State (Kristin Tamulis, 19) and one from North Carolina (Ashley Prange, 20).
This is the 15th annual ACC Women's Golf Championship, and the Terps' fourth appearance since the women's golf program began at Maryland in 1999. Duke has won the last seven titles, and ten overall. Three of the other four championships belong to Wake Forest, while North Carolina claimed its only crown in 1992. The tournament is being held at Salem Glen Country Club for the second consecutive year and the third time in four years. The Terps finished sixth there last year, placing all five individuals in the top 30. Harper finished 16th to pace the Terps.
Clasper, Crowther Say Goodbye
This will be the final tournament of Clasper's and Crowther's careers as Terrapins. Both seniors will graduate in May after competing in almost every tournament during their college tenure.
"They've been with me for four years, so it's going to be a tough week," Rodenhaver said. "It's our last tournament together, so hopefully they saved their best for last."
Averaging 78.76 strokes per 18 holes this season, Clasper has finished in the top 25 in six of her eight tournaments, including an eighth-place finish at last weekend's JMU/Bonnie Hoover Invitational.
Clasper's career highlight came at the UNC-Wilmington Lady Seahawk Invitational in the spring of 2002 when she tied for first with a 2-over-par 218. With a first-round 71, she carded the team's only sub-par round of the season.
Crowther has averaged 80.42 strokes over seven tournaments, and has finished in the top 25 four times. Her best performance of the season came at the fall finale, the Edwin Watts/Palmetto Intercollegiate, where she finished 14th with a 6-over-par 222, including the third round when she carded a par 72.
Terps In Harrisonburg
Maryland matched its best team finish, placing second at the JMU/Bonnie Hoover Invitational in Harrisonburg, Va., last weekend. "I thought we played very well. We seem to keep getting in the hunt, and hopefully it will carry over to the big one," Rodenhaver said, referring to the conference championship.
Shew paced the Terps with a 16-over-par 232, finishing in sixth place, her best individual finish of the season.
Clasper and Harper also cracked the top 15, with Clasper placing eighth and Harper tying for 12th.
Crowther tied for 21st place with a 26-over-par 242, and finished just one stroke out of the top 20. Wolejko tied for 46th place.
Terps At A Glance
The ACC Championship is the Terps' last tournament of the season. "All things considered, we've had a good spring. I'm proud of how hard the girls have worked, and that we've done so well is a tribute to them," Rodenhaver said, alluding to the inclement weather in College Park for much of the season. A winter storm dumped about two feet of snow on the city, preventing the team from practicing for three weeks before their first spring tournament, and the week leading up to James Madison was rainy and cold.
Clasper and Harper are the only Terps to have competed in all 21 rounds of the fall, spanning eight tournaments. Crowther has participated in seven, and Wolejko has played in six. Shew has competed in five of the Terps' tournaments this year, and junior Katie Redeker (Pepper Pike, Ohio) has played in four.
Harper leads the team with an average of 78.43 strokes per 18 holes, but Clasper is close behind at 78.76.
Maryland finished in ninth place at the fall opener, the Lady Kat Invitational, in Lexington, Ky. Harper and Redeker tied for 30th to lead the Terps.
The Terps were forced to withdraw from their second fall tournament, the Chrysler ACC/SEC Challenge, in Destin, Fla., due to Tropical Storm Isador. They returned to the course to finish sixth at the Nittany Lion Invitational in State College, Pa., and were led by a 24th-place finish from Clasper.
Maryland finished ninth at the Lady Pirate Fall Intercollegiate in Greenville, N.C. Team captain Clasper claimed the Terps' first top-20 finish of the season, placing 15th with a three-round total of 230.
The Terps ended the fall season on a high note, finishing fourth at the Edwin Watts/Palmetto Intercollegiate Nov. 5, the team's highest finish of the season. For the first time in the brief four-year history of the program, Maryland broke 300 for a round with a third-round 298. Crowther fired the Terps' only round of par of the fall, carding a 72 over the final 18 holes. She led the team with her 14th-place finish, the highest a Terrapin placed all season. Harper also landed in the top 20, tying for 15th place, just one stroke behind Crowther.
Maryland finished 17th at the spring-opening Edwin Watts/Carolinas Collegiate Classic in Pinehurst, N.C. Harper paced the Terps, tying for 37th place.
The Terps finished fourth at the Bradford Creek Women's Intercollegiate in Greenville, N.C., March 7-9. Maryland matched its best-ever score for a round with a second-round 298. Clasper and Harper tied for 16th to lead the Terps.
Finishing second, the Terps posted their best finish of the year at the Hatter Spring Fling in Daytona Beach, Fla., March 24-25. Harper tied for second with a two-round total of 154, just two strokes behind tournament-winner Ann Fraser of Florida Atlantic. Her second place is the best a Terp has finished individually all season.
About Coach Rodenhaver
In his fourth season as head coach, Jason Rodenhaver is the only coach the Maryland women's golf team has ever known, and he built the program from scratch.
Rodenhaver played three years for Maryland after transferring from Southern Methodist University in Dallas, where he played one season. As team captain in 1994, his senior year, Rodenhaver led the Terps to a fifth place finish at the ACC Tournament, and played in the 1994 NCAA Tournament.
In his eighth year of coaching, Rodenhaver was named head coach of the women's team on November 19, 1998 after serving as the assistant coach of the men's team for four-and-a-half seasons.
Rodenhaver says his most memorable moment as a coach was leading the women's team to victory at the James Madison Lady Dukes Invitational in Spring 2001. It was the first team victory in Maryland women's golf history.
Follow The Terrapins In 2003
Terps on the Web - For up-to-date tournament stories, statistics, schedules and results, and other Maryland athletic department information, please locate www.umterps.com on the Internet. Check it out today for the most recent women's golf player and coach bios and the 2002-03 season recaps.
E-mail Straight To You - If you would like the latest Maryland women's golf news e-mailed directly to you as soon as it breaks, e-mail women's golf contact Jessica Bernheim at JessicaB@wam.umd.edu with the message "Golf E-mail" as the subject and you will receive every update released about the team.
