Winthrop men’s golf earns Big South’s No. 1 seed

The Winthrop men’s golf team has earned the No. 1 seed in next week’s Big South Men’s Golf Championship, which will be held at The Patriot Golf Club at Grand Harbor in Ninety Six from April 19-21.

Coach Kevin Pendley’s Eagles, who will be pursuing their first automatic bid to an NCAA Regional, received the top seed based on their current GolfStat national ranking of 69, the highest among the 10 Big South programs. With sophomore Zach Seabolt leading the way, Winthrop finished in the top 5 in fall and spring tournaments five times. Winthrop captured the Wendy’s Kiawah Classic championship in November and closed out the fall portion of its schedule ranked 31st in the country.

Defending champion Liberty is ranked No. 81 in the nation by GolfStat and receives the No. 2 seed, just ahead of No. 3 seed Radford, which is ranked No. 96 in the country. Coastal Carolina (103) is the No. 4 seed while Campbell (121) earns the No. 5 seed. Charleston Southern (143) will be the No. 6 seed.

Gardner-Webb (7), host Presbyterian (8), High Point (9) and Longwood (10) round out the field.

The Patriot Club is hosting the Big South tournament for the 10th time in 11 years. The three-day, 54-hole event is free and open to the public. In addition, fans can follow the action online via GolfStat’s Live Scoring feature.

Winthrop will be paired with Liberty and Radford in the opening round and is scheduled to tee off at 9:20 a.m. on the No. 1 tee on Sunday.

Eagles bring four new players into fold: Winthrop volleyball coach Bruce Atkinson announced the addition of four student-athletes who will join the Eagle program this fall.

Julia Scott and Madilyn McCarthy will enter as freshmen while Annelies Dokter and Dorien Den Otter will transfer.

Scott is a local product from Rock Hill and played at Westminster Catawba Christian School. She is a 5-foot-4 defensive specialist who lettered in volleyball for three years. She was a two-year captain of the varsity squad and was named to the All-Conference team in 2013 and 2014. She was also selected to the NCISAA All-State team in 2014.

“Julia is a fundamentally sound passer and defender that will immediately help improve our team’s ball control,” Atkinson said. “She has been trained well and her strong technique will allow her to compete for quality playing time on the court.”

McCarty is a 6-foot setter from Springfield, Ill., where she will graduate from Springfield High School. McCarty was voted to the All-Conference team three times and was twice named an All-State special mention.

“Maddy is a high-level setter who will compete for a starting position this fall,” Atkinson said. “She has an excellent understanding of the flow of the game and has the ability to run the up-tempo offense we like. She is very athletic and has great size for a six-rotation setter.”

Dokter and Den Otter are both natives of The Netherlands and will transfer from the University of Texas-Brownsville.

Dokter is a junior 6-foot-1 outside hitter who was named the 2013 freshman of the year in the Red River Athletic Conference. She was a part of a Brownsville team that won two conference titles, was the 2014 NAIA national championship runner-up and the 2013 NAIA national champion.

“Annie is a powerful six-rotation outside hitter who has the ability to immediately boost our productivity in the front and back row,” Atkinson said. “Having helped her team to a record of 71-5 over the past two seasons and a NAIA national championship, we are excited for Annie to bring that successful experience here at Winthrop.”

Den Otter is a sophomore 5-foot-8 setter who played for Brownsville for one year. The 2014 team won the conference title and was the NAIA national runner-up.

“Dorien will bring both offensive and defensive experience to us in the setter position,” Atkinson said. “As a teammate of Annie’s, Dorien helped take her team to the NAIA national championship match this past season. Two things that really stand out about Dorien’s game are her strong work ethic and the energy she brings to the court. These qualities are contagious and will in turn help raise the level of play of those around her.”

Winthrop will open the season August 28-29 when they head to Columbia, Mo., to compete in the Missouri tournament.

Eagles rake in Big South honors: Several members of the Winthrop men’s tennis team have received accolades from the Big South Conference.

Peter Nagovnak, a senior from Kraubath, Austria, has been voted as the 2015 Big South Conference Men’s Tennis Scholar-Athlete of the Year. Nagovanak, who finished his senior campaign 9-11 in singles play and 11-9 in doubles action, is a Political Science major with a 3.99 GPA. A two-time Big South Presidential Scholar, Nagovnak has been a five-time Dean’s List student and will be graduating as Winthrop’s top male student-athlete.

Tremayne Mitchell, a sophomore from Johannesburg, South Africa, and Dylan Comerford, a senior also from Johannesburg, were both selected to the 2015 Big South Men’s Tennis Singles All-Conference Team. Comerford along with partner Nagovnak were also voted to the Doubles All-Conference Team.

The Eagles, 12-8, will look to begin defending their Big South Conference Tournament Championship when they meet Radford in the quarterfinals Sunday at the Asheville Racquet Club beginning at 3 p.m.

Winthrop 15, Longwood 4: Katie Clark and Kristen Shriver each netted four goals in Farmville, Va., as the Eagles downed the Lancers.

Winthrop’s victory coupled with Liberty’s victory over High Point sets up a showdown Sunday at 1 p.m. at Eagle Field for the regular-season conference title.

The Eagles extended their win streak to six games with the victory, improving to 13-2 overall and 5-0 in the conference. Longwood fell to 5-10 overall and 3-2 in the Big South.

Winthrop got off to a strong start against the Lancers, scoring the first nine goals before Longwood was able to get on the board. Freshman Katie Clark got the scoring going for the Eagles, converting a free-position attempt. Jenna Kasmarik followed that with her only tally of the first half followed by another converted free-position from Logan McCarthy.

Abigail Blevins, Shannon Gallagher, Kristen Shriver and Clark each scored in a span of 2:20, putting Winthrop ahead 7-0 with 19:09 left in the first half. Blevins and Shriver each grabbed their second goals of the half, to give the Eagles the 9-0 advantage.

Longwood grabbed their first tally of the game with 8:31 on the clock. Clark netted her third of the half with 7:09 remaining, giving Winthrop a 10-1 lead. The Lancers scored the last two goals of the half to go into the break, down 10-3.

The Lancers grabbed the first goal of the second half with 22:05 on the clock to pull within 10-4, but that was the only goal they scored in the second half. Gallagher converted a free-position attempt with 20:48 to play to put Winthrop back up 11-4.

The Eagles controlled the pace of the game for the final 20 minutes and didn’t score again until 11:18 left in the game as Kasmarik tallied her second. Just over a minute later Shriver grabbed her third and scored her fourth with 7:55 to play, giving the Eagles a running clock at 14-4. Clark capped off the Winthrop scoring with her fourth of the contest with 3:33 to go, reaching the 15-4 final.

Katie Clark finished with five points with four goals and one assist while Kristen Shriver also tallied four goals. Gallagher, Abigail Blevins and Jenna Kasmarik each netted two while Logan McCarthy scored once.

Girani had another strong day in goal, totaling seven saves and also picking up four ground balls in the victory. Freshman Katherine Judge had three ground balls and also forced four turnovers.

Coastal Carolina 4, Winthrop 2: The Eagles fell short in a Big South tournament semifinals matchup to Coastal Carolina at the Asheville Racquet Club in Asheville, N.C.

Winthrop allowed Coastal to jump out to an early 1-0 lead by dropping the doubles competition.

The Eagles battled back winning two of the singles slots but couldn’t find a way to finish off the Chanticleers.

The Eagles finish the season 12-12.

This story was originally published April 17, 2015 at 2:00 PM with the headline "Winthrop men’s golf earns Big South’s No. 1 seed."