Cullowhee, N.C. – Coming off arguably the most successful fall season in program history, the Western Carolina women's golf team opens the spring portion of its 2022-23 schedule Monday and Tuesday, Feb. 13-14 at the Oyster Shuck Match Play event, hosted by The Citadel at the Charleston Municipal Golf Course.
 
Eight teams will vie for the Oyster Shuck Match-Play tournament crown claimed by the Catamounts a season ago. In addition to WCU and the host Bulldogs, the field also includes UNCG and Samford from the Southern Conference, with Appalachian State (Sun Belt Conference), Delaware State (Northeast Conference), James Madison (Sun Belt Conference), and Radford (Big South Conference). Two squads – JMU (77) and WCU (83) – rank among the Top 100 in the latest GolfStat rankings and hold the top two seeds entering the event.
 
WCU is slated to open the match-play tournament against seventh seed and archrival Appalachian State on Monday with the afternoon match to pair the Catamounts against either No. 3 seed UNCG or No. 6 seed Radford, depending upon the morning's results. The final match is scheduled for Tuesday morning. WCU finished ahead of the Mountaineers twice in the fall portion of the schedule.
 
"It has been almost four months since this team has last competed and they are eager to get out there again," said WCU head coach Courtney Gunter. "This first tournament as a match-play event is always a fun way to kick off the spring season."
 
Gunter added, "We are coming off a big fall season, securing three wins in the fall and being ranked inside the top 100. But we know that we need to stay focused and do all the little things we did then to continue that success this spring."
 
Western Carolina won three-consecutive tournament titles to open 2022, winning Cincinnati's Jennifer Duke Invitational by nine strokes, leading the NC A&T Aggie Invitational wire-to-wire for a 53-stroke win, and claiming the Jupiter Women's Invitational by seven strokes. The Catamounts then closed the fall semester with a runner-up finish at the CSU Buccaneer Classic.
 
Two Catamounts – fifth-year senior Madison Isaacson and true freshman Brie Mapanao – collected SoCon Women's Golfer of the Week honors during the fall semester with Isaacson also earning WCU's first SoCon Women's Golfer of the Month plaudits since 2014 with the October honor.
 
After closing the fall in the South Carolina Lowcountry at the Crowfield Golf Club in Goose Creek, S.C., WCU returns to the coast of the Palmetto State to open the spring at the Oyster Shuck. Last season, the Catamounts downed the College of Coastal Georgia (4-1), rival Appalachian State (4-1) and Austin Peay State (3-2) to win the team championship.
 
Four of WCU's rostered five entering the spring opener were a part of last year's championship squad, led by Isaacson and including senior Victoria Ladd, sophomore Elizabeth Lohbauer, and redshirt freshman Kayleigh Baker. Isaacson and Lohbauer claimed all three individual matches in last year's victory with Baker and Ladd winning twice. The Catamount scoring five for the spring opener also includes Mapano, who along with Isaacson paced the squad in scoring in the fall at 72.83 – tied for third in the SoCon rankings. Lohbauer ranks sixth in the league at 73.42 strokes per round with Ladd (13th, 75.08) and Baker (14th, 75.25) also among the SoCon's Top 15.
 
Collectively, WCU paced the SoCon with a 292.0 team stroke average with a league-best three tournament championships and were tied for most Top Ten team finishes with four.
 
WCU's spring schedule features six combined tournaments culminating with the 2023 SoCon Women's Golf Championship on April 17-19 at Moss Creek in Hilton Head Island, S.C. The slate includes two trips to the South Carolina Lowcountry – this week's Oyster Shuck Match Play and the RiverTowne Invitational Feb. 26-28. Two events in March include a trip to Boulder Creek, Nev., for South Dakota State's Jackrabbit Invitational and the Georgia State Women's Golf Spring Invitational (March 27-28).
 
The final tune-up before the conference championship is App State's Mimosa Hills Intercollegiate in Morganton, N.C., a tournament where the Catamounts finished fourth a season ago.
 
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