Cullowhee, N.C. – Riding momentum from a historic 2022-23 regular season, the Western Carolina women's golf team heads to coastal South Carolina for the 2023 Southern Conference Women's Golf Championship looking to add an exclamation point to an unprecedented year in the program's history.
 
Play at the champion-crowning event opens on Sunday, April 16, at the par-72, 6,036-yard Moss Creek Golf Club on the Devil's Elbow South course in Hilton Head Island, S.C. The 54-hole championship event will be played over three days, April 16-18, with 18 holes slated for each day. Live scoring through GolfStat will be available online through a link at CatamountSports.com.
 
The league's nine teams – The Citadel, ETSU, Furman, Mercer, UNCG, Samford, Chattanooga, Western Carolina, and Wofford – compete for the SoCon tournament title and the automatic bid to the NCAA regional field. The individual medalist will also earn an automatic regional qualification if not on the championship-winning team.
 
Western Carolina's historic season features a SoCon-best nine Top 10 finishes that includes seven podium results with four team championships, two runner-up finishes, and a third place. WCU is among four teams in the league to have scored a team championship – and one of just two with multiple team titles as Mercer claimed two. Collectively, the Catamounts lead the SoCon in team scoring with a stroke average of 294.54 over 24 total rounds.
 
WCU also has three golfers – Brie Mapanao (73.29), Elizabeth Lohbauer (73.33), and Madison Isaacson (74.08) – each on the cusp of setting a program single-season record season, besting the 74.78 carded over 27 rounds by Josefine Sundh back in the 2009-10 season.
 
"Heading into this week, we all have our mind set on bringing home one more trophy. But nothing we do this week can take away from the incredible season this team has put together," said WCU head coach Courtney Gunter. "I am beyond proud of this group and what we've all accomplished together. They play an individual sport as a team and that's been a huge part of our success."
 
Six golfers will travel for the Catamounts including the scoring five and an alternate who can be substituted into the lineup if necessary. All six of WCU's strikers traveling rank within the SoCon's Top 30 individuals in terms of scoring average to date this season with three among the Top 10.
 
Western Carolina's lineup is led by sophomore Elizabeth Lohbauer as the No. 1 seed. A two-time SoCon Women's Golfer of the Week and the league's Golfer of the Month in February, Lohbauer had six Top 10 finishes including sharing medalist honors at the Jackrabbit Invitational. A native of Venice, Fla., Lohbauer ranks fifth overall in SoCon stroke average at 73.33. She paced the Catamounts at last year's SoCon Championship in a fifth-place tie
 
True freshman Brie Mapanao – a strong candidate for SoCon Freshman of the Year honors – is the highest-ranking first-year player at fourth in the conference in scoring average at 73.29 and will play as WCU's No. 2. The Quakers Hill, New South Wales, Australia product has five Top 10 individual finishes this season including three podium finishes with a pair of second-place showings to her credit. She collected SoCon Women's Golfer of the Week back on Oct. 19.
 
Fifth-year senior Madison Isaacson and senior Victoria Ladd play as WCU's No. 3 and No. 4 seeds entering the event. The two Greensboro, N.C., products rank seventh and 17th, respectively, in scoring average at 74.08 and 75.58. Isaacson, a two-time weekly award winner and October's SoCon Women's Golfer of the Month, has three Top Five finishes this season including medalist honors at the Aggie Invitational, while Ladd has four Top 10 showings in 2022-23.
 
Sophomore Kaitlyn Wingnean is penciled in as WCU's No. 5 seed with redshirt sophomore Kayleigh Baker traveling as WCU's alternate. The duo has split time both within WCU's scoring five and as individual competitors for the squad this year and rank 29th and 30th, respectively, in the SoCon scoring charts at 76.81 and 77.08, respectively, and the two have three Top 10 finishes combined.
 
Five of WCU's six golfers – all but freshman Mapanao – have experience in the SoCon Championship tournament.
 
"Moss Creek will no doubt be a great test for all the teams this week. The greens are new which means they will be hard and fast," said Gunter. "The field is also very strong, as always. There are four teams in the top 110 of the rankings with the others not far behind. The championship could very well come down to only one or two shots. If we can play smart and be patient, we can do well this week."
 
Furman claimed the 2022 SoCon Championship by four strokes over Wofford, 899-to-903. Individual medalist Dorota Zalewska of Chattanooga returns as a senior after earning a one-stroke victory a season ago. WCU slipped two spots in the final standings to come home sixth in 2022, just six strokes outside of the Top Five.
 
The Catamounts became just the second SoCon program to win the women's golf title back in 2003 in Waynesville, halting a string of nine-straight team titles by Furman. Brandy Andersen earned WCU's only individual medalist honor at the tournament for the WCU Hall of Fame 2002-03 squad. The Catamounts also claimed the 2007 championship in Mt. Pleasant, S.C. WCU has twice had the runner-up finisher as Ashley Hovda (2005) and Bianca Melone (2006) both recorded second-place finishes.
 
All told, only five programs have claimed SoCon Women's Golf Championships dating back to 1994 with defending event champion, Furman, leading the way with 19 team championships. Chattanooga has won five titles, each coming in succession between 2010 and 2014, all coming at Moss Creek. WCU is third with two championships (2003, 2007), with ETSU winning its first-ever women's golf title in 2021 and former league-member College of Charleston winning in 2006.
 
Complete results will be made available after play concludes each round through SoConSports.com and CatamountSports.com.
 
Keep track of everything related to Catamount women's golf and WCU Athletics through its social media outlets on Facebook (fb.com/catamountsports), Instagram (@wcu_catamounts), and Twitter (@catamounts, @CatamountWGolf).
 
Tournament Field (GolfStat Ranking) – Scoring Avg.:
Western Carolina (108) – 294.54 avg. (1st)
Chattanooga (134) – 302.00 (6th)
The Citadel (262) – 350.71 (9th)
ETSU (105) – 299.71 (4th)
Furman (62) – 298.38 (2nd)
Mercer (101) – 299.23 (3rd)
UNCG (141) – 300.70 (5th)
Samford (173) – 305.59 (7th)
Wofford (171) – 307.15 (8th)