DeLand, Fla. ? Fresh off the best season in program history, the Atlantic Sun Conference postseason awards, announced Monday, reflected that fact for the conference champion Stetson women's golf team. Head Coach Floyd Kerr was named Coach of the Year while freshman Lauren Cate (St. Augustine, Fla.) earned Freshman of the Year honors along with a spot on the All-Atlantic Sun First Team. These are the first Coach of the Year and Freshman of the Year awards for Stetson in program history. Junior Danielle Jackson (Seminole, Fla.), the 2009 A-Sun tournament champion, was also named to the First Team with junior Lauren Darnell (Gainesville, Ga.) landing on the Second Team.
Kerr coached the Hatters to their first Atlantic Sun Conference championship April 13-15 at Victoria Hills Golf Club in DeLand, erasing a three-stroke final round deficit to Campbell with a league record even par 288 over the final 18 holes. Jackson tied the tournament final round record with a three under par 69 to win medalist honors while Cate shot one under par 71 to finish second and Darnell had a 75 to tie for 10th. Under Kerr's direction, Stetson won three tournaments, finished second in two others and appeared in the NCAA regional championships for the first time in school history.
Cate's 75.9 season stroke average was not only second on the team to Jackson's 75.3; in fact, those two averages marked the top two season scores in school history. Jackson and Cate finished 1-2 in both tournaments held at VHGC this season as they presaged the a-Sun Championships with top two honors at the Holiday Inn Express Hatter Fall Classic last November. Cate was also Stetson's top competitor in the NCAA East Regional in Gainesville, Fla., shooting rounds of 73-73-74 to tie for 23rd place out of 108 golfers and flirting with NCAA Championship individual qualification well into the final round.
Jackson, the November 2008 A-Sun Golfer of the Month, appears on the First Team for the second year in a row and joins Kim Goldstrohm '94 (four times) and Christine Ridenour '94 as the only Hatters to be named All-Conference three times in a career. 2009 marks the first time Stetson has had a golfer named to the First Team, the Second Team and the All-Freshman Team since voting began in 1997.
Darnell earned three top five finishes in the fall 2008 season, including a tie for second in an 87-golfer field at the USF Waterlefe Invitational. Her 73 in the final round of the NCAA East Regional was Stetson's top score on the final day of competition. She previously received All-Freshman Team honors in 2007.
Belmont senior Lorie Warren earned her second consecutive A-Sun Player of the Year award with Campbell's Mary Mattson and ETSU's Sinead O'Sullivan joining her, Jackson and Cate on the First Team. Darnell's fellow second team honorees are a pair of Campbell Camels (Sandra Angulo and Belen Diaz Cisneros) along with two ETSU Lady Bucs (Laura Jansone and Nina Muehl). Cate, Muehl, Mayte Vizcarrondo (ETSU), Michelle Koh (Campbell) and Patricia Arana (Kennesaw State) comprise the All-Freshman Team.
