ELON, N.C. – At four of its five fall tournaments, the Elon University women's golf team finished in the top five. It finished top-three on three occasions, top-two twice and won its final tournament of the autumn at the Terrier Intercollegiate.
Head coach Chris Dockrill, in his 24th season with the Phoenix, attributed the team's steady climb in the fall to its veteran leadership, emphasizing the nature of the team as a cohesive group.
"Experience is something you can't teach and they have a lot of that," Dockrill said. "They're very good with younger players, too. A lot of times, you have separation between a freshman and a fourth-year student, but right now, they're very connected."
Graduate student Annabelle Ackroyd posted three individual top-five finishes in the fall while fellow Canadian Ashley Lafontaine, a sophomore, delivered three top-10s herself. Sophomore Annie Wu, a player Dockrill said he was especially impressed with during the fall, also provided a fifth-place finish and three top-20 finishes.
"Annie came on as a walk-on her first semester and was probably pretty nervous, but within a year, she's made a complete 360," Dockrill said. "Golf is pretty easy to compute, low scores mean everything, but on top of that, she's just fantastic. Her attitude, everything she brings every day, it's just outstanding."
Wu's highest placement of the fall was fifth at the Edisto Island Invitational, where she shot a 212, just seven strokes behind the leader. She also finished 12th at the season-opening William & Mary Invitational and 13th at the final event of the fall, the Terrier Intercollegiate.
Wu said that when she encountered more challenging rounds over the course of the fall, her attitude was what kept her under control. She said that when she lost patience, her rounds went downhill.
"Based on tournaments before, I was feeling like I needed to be really, really patient during that round," Wu said, speaking of her final round at the Edisto Island Invitational. "I stood my ground and just focused on finishing without thinking about the results."
"I have to try to think of it as longer than the actual round is," Wu continued. "When I lose my patience, I play badly. My teammates have helped me with that."
The team's togetherness is one of the factors that Dockrill hopes will propel the Phoenix to more victories in the fall.
"It is a team sport, even though it's an individual sport in a lot of different cases. You've got to have everybody caring for one another," Dockrill said. "The expectation is going to be that it's not a one-person score, it's four scores combined. You have to have that type of mentality."
The spring schedule offers no easy tournaments for the Phoenix. Only one of its tournaments takes it further than South Carolina – the Advance Golf Partners Collegiate in West Palm Beach, Florida – but it figures to face stiff competition. UNC Wilmington, Charleston Southern and East Carolina are among the schools to play host to the Phoenix in the spring.
"A lot of my teammates have huge potential," Wu said. "I'm just looking forward to all of them showing it out there."
"They know their talent level. They are very talented young ladies, and we definitely have potential," Dockrill said. "We're excited to make a good run this year. It may be tough, but they see the possibility of winning the conference tournament."
The Phoenix begins its season on Feb. 10 in West Palm Beach at the Advance Golf Partners Collegiate.
Three Things To Know
Ackroyd On Fire – Graduate student
Annabelle Ackroyd is on a torrid run of form dating back to last season. She has finished in the top-20 in 13 of her last 14 events dating back to the 2022 fall season, which includes seven top-fives.
Aces High – Two Elon players carded an ace during the fall season.
Ashley Lafontaine made hers at the Elon Invitational while
Lotte Fox recorded one at the Terrier Intercollegiate.
Familiar Faces – All eight of Elon's players were with the team last season. All eight appeared in at least one fall tournament.
'Rising Phoenix' is a new student-led initiative to cover Elon Athletics. Through innovative content creation and storytelling, Elon University students will have the opportunity to highlight the moments, people and events that make an impact, leveraging the athletic department's various web and social media platforms for distribution. Follow Rising Phoenix on Twitter (@EURisingPhoenix) and Instagram (@elonrisingphoenix). Interested in joining this initiative as a content creator (video, graphics, writing, storytelling, or more)? Contact Jacob Kisamore at jkisamore@elon.edu.
--ELON--
