PSAC Women's Golfer of the Year Karen Cash of East Stroudsburg (left) and Freshman of the Year Maria Lopez of California (right)
Lock Haven, Pa. - East Stroudsburg freshman Karen Cash has been named the PSAC Women’s Golfer of the Year to headline the 2009-10 PSAC women’s golf postseason awards. California freshman Maria Lopez has been named the PSAC Freshman of the Year while West Chester head coach Doug Hendricks is the Coach of the Year.
This is just the second year of women’s golf as a PSAC sport and consequently, postseason awards for the sport. Prior to last year, only three PSAC teams competed in women’s golf. However, last year, both East Stroudsburg and Clarion added women’s golf as a varsity sport and both Gannon and Mercyhurst, who both sponsor women’s golf, joined the PSAC to make for seven PSAC teams. This year, Millersville also added a women’s golf program, giving the PSAC eight women’s golf teams.
Cash (Allendale, N.J.) is East Stroudsburg’s first-ever PSAC postseason award recipient for women’s golf in just the program’s second season. She burst onto the scene this year by finished in the top 10 in all seven of the tournaments in which she played in, six of which were also top five finishes. She won three tournaments on the year - the Clarion Invitational, the Lancaster Classic and ESU invitational. Her worst finish of the year was a 10th place finish in her first collegiate tournament back in September. She was finish in a tie for third place at the PSAC Championships and led the Warriors with a 79.7 stroke average.
Lopez (Bogota, Colombia) is the second straight California golfer to be named Freshman of the Year. Her honor comes after a standout season in which she had eight top 10 finishes, including seven top five finishes, and helped lead California to its second straight PSAC Championship, a third place finish at the NCAA Regionals and an eighth place finish at the NCAA Championships in the program’s first-ever appearance at the NCAA Championships. Lopez led the Vulcans in stroke average this year with a 78.6 and was an All-Region selection. Individually, she finished second at the PSAC Championships, third at the NCAA Regionals and tied for 39th at NCAA Championships. Overall, she was the top Cal finisher or was tied for the top Vulcan finisher in six of Cal’s 12 tournament this year. She follows teammate Dianne Luke, who was last year’s Freshman of the Year.
Hendricks just completed his first year as the head coach at West Chester and he earns his first PSAC Coach of the Year award after guiding the Golden Rams to a third place finish at the PSAC Championships in April. The Golden Rams finished just one stroke ahead of fourth place Gannon and that finish marked a significant improvement for the team over last year’s finish in which the Rams finished in fifth place at PSACs. More significantly, the Golden Rams’ team score at the PSAC Championships was 62 strokes better than last year and West Chester also had its first ever top 10 finisher at PSACs in Ann Bamnick, who finished in 10th place.
2009-10 PSAC Women’s Golf Awards
Golfer of the Year
Karen Cash, East Stroudsburg
Freshman of the Year
Maria Lopez, California
Coach of the Year
Doug Hendricks, West Chester