May 23, 2001
Evanston, Ill. - The 2000-01 Northwestern women's golf program capped off another successful season by finishing a best-ever second at the Big Ten Championships. Combined with two tournament wins and numerous broken records, the level of Wildcats golf has once again been raised to another level.
The `Cats placed in the top 10 in all but one tournament this season, ending with a team stroke average of 78.26 in 192 rounds played. The only slip was in the rain-shortened NCAA East Regional, where they placed 15th.
The `Cats took a particular liking to Bradenton, Fla., winning both of their tournaments there. The first win came in the fall at the Central District Classic. Led by four individuals in the top 10, NU won the event by four strokes over Kent State.
The Wildcats returned to Bradenton in mid-March and captured team honors at the USF/Waterlefe Invitational, finishing seven strokes ahead of host South Florida. Junior Emily Gilley (Flossmoor, Ill./Homewood-Flossmoor) led the charge this time with a second-place finish at 4-over.
The highlight of the season was not the two tournament wins, but rather the second-place finish at the Big Ten Championships in Minneapolis, Minn. NU carded rounds of 304-303-314-309=1,230 en route to its best finish ever at the championships. It also marked only the second time the Wildcats broke the top five -- they took third in 1998.
Individually, two golfers stood out for NU throughout the year. Gilley and sophomore Elizabeth Burden (Lake Bluff, Ill./Lake Forest) ended the season with virtually the same stroke averages. Gilley's 76.65 average is an NU record for a season, beating her old mark by .15 strokes. Burden was right behind her with a 76.68 average. The two also combined for 11 top-10 finishes, and both earned All-Big Ten honors.
Gilley also set a school record with a round of 69 at the "Mo" Morial, the lowest round in Wildcat history. Freshman Lauren Grzebien (Saunderstown, R.I./Narragansett) had set the single-round mark during the fall when she fired a 70 at the Mercedes Benz Intercollegiate. Gilley also remains on top of the career average list with one year left after shaving .3 strokes off her average.
Freshman Hana Kim (Los Angeles, Calif./Brentwood) made headlines of her own on March 31, when she drilled her tee shot on the 13th hole (par 3-146 yards) at the Lady Buckeye Spring Invitational into the cup on the fly. It was only the second hole-in-one in NU women's golf history. Kim, along with Grzebien, formed one of the most highly regarded freshman classes in the 2000-01 season.
With another highly touted freshman class set to enter Northwestern next year, the Wildcat golf program should keep the momentum it has gathered the last two seasons and continue raising the bar on the level of play at NU.