ORLANDO, Fla. (UCFKnights.com) – The UCF women's golf team found itself No. 18 when the 2016-17 season's first iteration of Golfstat.com rankings were announced this week.
UCF is the highest ranked team in the American Athletic Conference (AAC), just ahead of No. 20 SMU. East Carolina just made the top-50 but the Knights and Mustangs were the only two AAC squads in the Top 25. The Black and Gold notched two top-five and one top-10 performance already this season, taking on some of the best teams in the country in each event. The Knights are also No. 20 in Golfweek's rankings.
"We've had a really good start to our season and we are excited about our progress thus far," head coach Emily Marron said. "With the addition of a few new players and the experience of the seniors, it's truly been a team effort all the way around and that depth should be beneficial to us moving into the spring season."
Freshman Maria Balcazar leads the Knights and is also tied for No.19 among NCAA DI individuals with a 70.6 scoring average. Balcazar is ranked No. 33 in the nation by Golfweek.Senior Ashley Holder is No. 48 in the nation in scoring average at 71.67. She is ranked No. 79 by Golfweek.
Next up, UCF will head to Wilmington, N.C. Oct. 28-30 to compete in its final event of the fall portion of the 2016-17 campaign, the Landfall Tradition.