ST. PAUL, Minn. – The Upper Midwest Athletic Conference (UMAC) announced the recipients of their 2024 women’s golf awards on Wednesday. The awards are nominated and voted on by the conference head coaches.
 
The University of Northwestern Eagles’ Morgan Eckman was named the UMAC Player of the Year for the second year in a row. The sophomore led the conference with a season average score of 78.5 (adjusted to 76.9 for awards voting per the coaches’ guidelines) through 13 rounds. Eckman also led the Eagles at the UMAC Championship, finishing as the Individual Champion atop the player leaderboard at +25 for the three-day tournament to help Northwestern win the conference title; the Eagles’ second in a row, third in the past four years, and sixth overall. Additionally, Eckman was the medalist in three regular season invites and was a three-time UMAC Player of the Week this fall.
 
Northwestern's Ellie Rolland was named the UMAC Rookie of the Year. The freshman had a season average score of 92.0 (adjusted to 90.18 for awards voting per the coaches’ guidelines) through 13 rounds, which ranked 12^th in the conference. Rolland had two top-10 finishes this fall for UNW and tied for ninth overall at the UMAC Championship at +60 to help the Eagles win the conference title.
 
Northwestern Head Coach Billy Aune was named the UMAC Coach of the Year. In his 19^th season leading the Eagles, Coach Aune led Northwestern to win the UMAC Championship for the second year in a row, the third time in the past four years, and the sixth time in the program’s history. Aune’s Eagles won the conference championship with a team score of +166 for the three-round tournament, finishing 76 strokes ahead of the runner-up.
 
The Crown College Polars won the team sportsmanship award, an accolade that is selected by the UMAC coaches and awarded to the team that best represents sportsmanship throughout the entire season, including the championship event.

15 student-athletes were named all-conference. Each team also had one representative named to the all-sportsmanship team.

PLAYER OF THE YEAR
Morgan Eckman | Northwestern Eagles

ROOKIE OF THE YEAR
Ellie Rolland | Northwestern Eagles

COACH OF THE YEAR
Billy Aune | Northwestern Eagles

TEAM SPORTSMANSHIP AWARD
Crown Polars

ALL-CONFERENCE FIRST TEAM
ALL-CONFERENCE SECOND TEAM
ALL-CONFERENCE HONORABLE MENTIONS
ALL-SPORTSMANSHIP TEAM  

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The UMAC is an NCAA Division III member comprised of eight full-time member schools from Minnesota and Wisconsin: Bethany Lutheran College, Crown College, Martin Luther College, North Central University, Northland College, University of Minnesota Morris, University of Northwestern, and University of Wisconsin-Superior.
 

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