The Notre Dame women’s golf team is set to travel to Greensboro, North Carolina, for the ACC Championships, taking place from April 16–19.
Riding three straight top-six finishes, the team is playing its best golf of the season. However, in the highly-competitive ACC, the Irish will still need to elevate their performance come Wednesday.
The Irish will be competing against 14 other programs, including several new entrants as No. 1 Stanford, Cal and SMU make their maiden ACC Championships appearance. While Stanford reigns supreme as the best program in the country and defending national champions, Cal and SMU are no slouches either. Both the Golden Bears and Mustangs rank just outside the top 25 teams in the nation.
Those teams won’t be the only strong roadblocks in Notre Dame’s way. The Irish’s long-time ACC foes No. 3 Florida State, No. 12 North Carolina and Clemson will all pose a formidable challenge. With this in mind, head coach Christine Powers Ellis will be sure to emphasize for her team to get off on the right foot come round one of stroke place, which is scheduled for 7:30 a.m. on Wednesday.
Embodying an underdog spirit, Notre Dame’s charge for conference glory will be led by freshman Bridget Wilkie. A former top 15 recruit nationally, Wilkie has lived up to the hype in her first year with the Irish. She will arrive in Greensboro off the back of her third consecutive top-25 finish, including a ninth-place result at the Pinetree Women’s Collegiate.
Seniors Montgomery Ferreira and Maya Hunter will complement Wilkie. Ferreira is looking to find consistency on the links. In her last four events, she has placed T-13th, T-41st, T-12th and T-40th. If Ferreira can play her best golf, Notre Dame will get a much-needed boost as they seek to compete against some of the ACC’s best. Meanwhile, Hunter shot 224 (+8) at the Maryland Terps Invitational a week ago en route to her first top 25 finish of the season.
Two of the following golfers — sophomore Alexsandra Lapple, freshman Faustine Errecade and freshman Maddy Bante — are expected to round out Notre Dame’s starting five. Lapple shot an impressive 215 (+2) at the Pinetree Women’s Collegiate, placing her tied for third; the best mark any Irish golfer has received this season. Errecade most recently shot 220 (+4) in Maryland. Although Bante did not compete in Maryland, she delivered a stellar 206 (-4) at the Clover Cup.
Coach Powers Ellis has plenty of decisions to make, but one thing is for certain: if Notre Dame golfers can continue upon their collective upward trend, they will have a real chance to turn some heads in Greensboro.
