GREENEVILLE, Tenn. --- The Tusculum women's golf team makes the short trip to Tazewell, Tennessee next week for the 2021 South Atlantic Conference Championship. The two-day, 54-hole tournament will be held at Woodlake Golf Club and hosted by Lincoln Memorial on the par-72, 5,926-yard layout.
This year's championship will begin on Monday with a 36-hole shotgun start at 8:30 a.m., followed by Tuesday's final 18 holes starting at 8:30 a.m.
The 2021 SAC Championship will feature three nationally-ranked teams listed in the latest WGCA/NCAA Division II Coaches' Poll including No. 3 Limestone, No. 6 Anderson and No. 19 Wingate. Carson-Newman and Tusculum are also receiving votes in the WGCA Poll. Tusculum is also listed 27th in the most recent Golfstat rankings.
Under the direction of head coach Ross Cash, the Pioneers head into the league championship with some momentum, having won two of its last three events of the spring schedule including Monday's team title at the UVA Wise Invitational. TU posted an impressive sixth place showing at the Lady Bearcat Invitational which followed the Pioneers wire-to-wire win at the 23rd-annual Agnes McAmis Memorial. TU also had fourth-place finishes at the Spring Kickoff Intercollegiate and the NCAA Division I Bobby Nichols Intercollegiate.
Leading the charge for the Pioneers is graduate student Jennifer Keim. She is a two-time All-South Atlantic Conference selection but will be playing in her first SAC Championship since transferring from NCAA I Florida Atlantic where she played three seasons.
Keim leads the Pioneers for a second straight year with her 75.42 stroke average which is the eighth lowest in the league and is on pace to be a new TU single-season record. Keim has posted five top-10 performances in her six tournaments this spring including three top-5 finishes.
She captured her second individual title at last month's McAmis Memorial where she posted a 36-hole score of 76-72=148. She preceded that with a third place finish at the Nichols Intercollegiate where she garnered All-Tournament honors with a TU 54-hole record 70-77-75=222.
During her brief Tusculum career, she has a 75.69 scoring average which is slated to be a new program record. In her two seasons in Greeneville, she has recorded eleven top-20 finishes including nine times in the top-five.
Freshman Nilubol Panno (Phuket, Thailand) is second on the team with her 76.5 stroke average and is playing her best golf of the season of late. On Monday, she carded a one-over par 72 to play her way into a sudden-death playoff where she won on the third hole to claim the championship medal at the UVA Wise Invitational. For Panno, it was her third consecutive All-Tournament performance.
She has played in all six spring events where she has five top-20 finishes including four times in the top-10 and three top-5 outings. She finished runner-up at the McAmis Memorial with 72-77=149 and followed with 71-72=143 (-1) at the Lady Bearcat Invitational. Her 36-hole score at the Lady Bearcat Invitational was the second-lowest in school history. In her last three tournaments she has accounted for a 72.8 scoring average.
Junior Olivia Cunningham is the only player in the Tusculum line-up to have played in a SAC Championship. She finished 21st at the 2019 SAC Tournament where she carded an 82-74-79=235. This season, she is third on the roster with her 78.92 but is averaging 74.67 strokes per round in her last two tournaments. The Nashville, Tennessee native finished fourth at Monday's UVA Wise Invitational and preceded that with back-to-back rounds of 74 to shoot 148 and tie for 19th place at the Lady Bearcat Invitational. She tied for 12th at the McAmis and 15th at the Nichols Intercollegiate.
In her career, Cunningham has a 78.60 stroke average which is the fourth lowest in program history. Cunningham, a two-time WGCA All-America Scholar, has 11 career top-20 performances and has finished six times in the top-10 and on five occasions in the top-five.
Senior Hannah Brown, who joined the team at the beginning of the 2020 spring term, has qualified for all six tournaments this spring where she has a 78.92 stroke average and has finished in the top-20 in four events including twice in the top-10. The San Tan Valley, Arizona product finished fourth at the McAmis with 80-77=157 and tied for ninth at the UVA Wise Invitational. She posted a 54-hole total 81-76-75=232 at the Nichols Intercollegiate where finished 17th. She also placed 16th at The Battle at Hilton Head.
Junior Jacque Butler has emerged as TU's No. 5 player this spring where she has dropped nearly two shots per round off her scoring average from last spring. She has an 87.13 stroke average in her four events which includes a pair of top-20 finishes. In her last four competitive rounds, she has an 84.5 stroke average while placing 20th at the McAmis Memorial and 15th at the UVA Wise Invitational.
The Pioneers won the first two SAC Women's Golf Championships held by the league in 2000 and 2001. Tusculum finished runner-up at the 2013 and 2017 league championships.
Lincoln Memorial will be providing live scoring throughout the SAC Championship as well as live video on certain holes during the event. Visit www.TusculumPioneers.com for links and more information.
