Women's golf season tees off with Minnesota Morris aiming to defend Conference championship
ST. PAUL, MINN. – The 2023 Upper Midwest Athletic Conference (UMAC) women’s golf season will tee off next week with dual matches and regular season tournaments commencing. The University of Minnesota Morris is the defending conference tournament champions as the Cougars held on last fall to defeat the University of Northwestern by two strokes in a back-and-forth battle over three days that came down to the final group determining the conference title. Minnesota Morris and Northwestern both appear poised to contend for the UMAC championship again in 2023.
Minnesota Morris head coach Jana Koehler returns for her 24
th season leading the Cougar women’s golf program. Minnesota Morris returns several key contributors from their team that represented the UMAC at the NCAA Division III National Championship last spring. Leading that list includes senior Justine Day, who finished second in the 2022 UMAC Championship and was a first-team all-conference honoree. Junior standout Hannah Selig also returns for the Cougars after collecting first-team all-conference accolades a season ago with her fourth place finish in the UMAC tournament. Both Day and Selig finished in the Top 10 in the UMAC in their 2022 campaigns in overall scoring average for the season. Senior Paisley Sierra will look to improve upon her 12
th place finish in the UMAC Championship last season as the Cougars have their sights set on claiming back-to-back UMAC championships.
Northwestern head coach Billy Aune will lead the Eagles women’s golf program for the 18
th straight season as he and Koehler from Minnesota Morris were selected as the UMAC Co-Coaches of the Year in 2022. The Eagles return all four of their first-team all-conference award winners from a year ago including the 2022 UMAC Player of the Year in senior Mattie Krause. Krause is a three-time all-conference honoree and one of four returning Eagle standouts that finished in the Top 10 in the UMAC in 2022 in scoring average for the season. Junior Claire Haakenson, Senior Kirsten Darling, and senior Kelly Van Den Bussche finished 6
th, 7
th, and 8
th respectively at the UMAC Championship last fall and will aim to move up the individual standings this season. Haakenson led the UMAC in 2022 with a scoring average of 87.5 per round for the season. The Eagles set a new program record for single round team score a year ago with a round of 333 in October and with most of their roster returning, that record may very well be broken in 2023.
Crown College, Northland College and the University of Wisconsin-Superior finished in 3
rd, 4
th and 5
th place in the 2022 UMAC Championship and will shoot to improve their positioning this fall. Crown College returns their top two competitors including sophomore Kendall Clark, who was selected as the 2022 UMAC Rookie of the Year and a first-team all-conference honoree after finishing third in the UMAC championship. Sophomore Lexi Thomas will also be back in purple for the Polars as she was an honorable mention all-conference performer in 2022, finishing 11
th in the UMAC championship.
Northland College senior standout Maddy Bloedel will try to secure back-to-back UMAC Championship medalist honors as she was the 2022 UMAC individual champion, claiming all-conference accolades for the third straight season, and finishing second in the entire conference for individual scoring average for the 2022 season (87.8). The fourth place team finish a year ago for Northland represented a tie for the best conference finish in program history. The University of Wisconsin-Superior Yellowjackets will welcome six new student-athletes to the program in their 2023-2024 campaign. Returning for UW-Superior and providing veteran experience will be Junior Kenzie Tuura, who finished just outside the Top 20 in the UMAC Championship in 2022.
Bethany Lutheran College, Martin Luther College, and North Central University round out the UMAC women’s golf teams challenging for the conference title. Bethany Lutheran returns all five of its golfers from last season. Martin Luther College will be led by junior AnaCristina Iglesias and North Central welcomes back honorable mention all-conference performer Victoria Sanders.
All eight UMAC teams will participate in the UMAC Preview Event on Thursday, September 14, at Pebble Creek Golf Club, the site of the UMAC Championship tournament later in October. A complete UMAC Championship preview with important tournament information and team-by-team breakdowns will be released the week of the conference championship in October.
2023 UMAC CHAMPIONHIP
- WHEN: Thursday-Saturday, October 5-7, 2023
- WHERE: Pebble Creek Golf Club (Becker, Minn.)
- FORMAT: Three-Round, 54-Holes
- AT STAKE: Winning team secures the UMAC Automatic Qualifier to NCAA Division III Championship
2022 CHAMPIONSHIP HIGHLIGHTS
- Minnesota Morris and Northwestern were tied after day one of the UMAC championship. Minnesota Morris shot a championship best team score of 359 in round two and held on to win the 2022 UMAC title by two strokes over Northwestern.
- Minnesota Morris had three competitors finish in the Top 10 (2nd, 4th, and 10th) while Northwestern had four golfers finish in the Top 10 (6th-9th). Northland, Crown and UW-Superior each had one student-athlete place in the Top 10 for individual standings.
- Northland’s Maddy Bloedel carded a score of 84 in the opening round and back-to-back rounds of 87 to finish the tournament and secure medalist honors by one stroke.
- UMAC Rookie of the Year honoree Kendall Clark recorded the lowest round of the championship with an 83 on the final day of the three-day tournament.
2022 TEAM SCORING AVERAGES
| Team |
Rounds |
Average |
| Northwestern |
13 |
355.2 |
| Minnseota Morris |
12 |
367.5 |
| Crown |
12 |
393.1 |
| Northland |
12 |
402.2 |
| UW-Superior |
13 |
409.6 |
| Bethany Lutheran |
7 |
481.1 |
| North Central |
7 |
499.4 |
| Martin Luther |
12 |
518.5 |
2022 INDIVIDUAL TOP 10 SCORING AVERAGES
| Name |
Team |
Rounds |
Average |
| Claire Haakenson |
Northwestern |
13 |
87.5 |
| Maddy Bloedel |
Northland |
12 |
87.8 |
| Mattie Krause |
Northwestern |
13 |
88.5 |
| Payton Sierra |
Minnesota Morris |
12 |
88.6 |
| Kirsten Darling |
Northwestern |
13 |
89.2 |
| Kendall Clark |
Crown |
12 |
90.2 |
| Kelly Van Den Bussche |
Northwestern |
13 |
91.6 |
| Justine Day |
Minnesota Morris |
12 |
91.8 |
| Hannah Selig |
Minnesota Morris |
11 |
92.3 |
| Victoria Sanders |
North Central |
8 |
94.4 |