DETROIT (2/23/2016) -- The University of Detroit Mercy women's golf team celebrated its past season with a banquet over the weekend as head coach TerRi Anthony-Ryan announced the award winners from 2014-15.
"It was great to see all the girls come back and we all had a great time together," said coach Ryan. "The awards went to three outstanding individuals, but I felt like everyone on the team did a great job, worked hard in the classroom and out on the course and they are all winners in my mind."
Sarah Thompson was named the Most Valuable Player as she had no sophomore slump. Thompson was named All-Horizon League after leading the team and ranking fifth in the conference with a career-best 78.43 average. She started all nine tournaments and was in the top 20 eight times with four top-10 finishes, all while leading UDM in six events. She was also named to the All-Tournament Team at the Horizon League Championship after tying for third with a career-low 232 (76-79-77) and did a great job in the classroom earning Detroit Athletic Director's Honor Roll and the Horizon League Fall and Spring Academic Honor Roll status.
The Collette Hanson Award for Team Leadership was given to departed senior
Olivia Richards . A team captain for the second-straight year, she played and started all nine events and was second on the team and 11th in the Horizon League with an 80.24 average. She finished her career second in Titan history with an 80.06 career average in 93 rounds out on the links. Her 26 top-20 finishes are tied for fourth in school history, while her 18 top-10 efforts are second.
Richards was also a four-time member of the Detroit Athletic Director's Honor Roll and a three-time member of the Horizon League Fall and Spring Academic Honor Rolls. She also earned All-American Scholar by the Women's Golf Coaches Association.
The Most Improved Player went to
Brooke Sharpe. As a sophomore, she was in the starting line-up in all nine events and was fourth on the squad with a career-best 85.19 average, but improved throughout the year tallying an 83.27 mark in the Titans' five spring tournaments. She ended with the third best score on the team and finished 27th at the Horizon League Championship with a career-low 256 (87-83-86).
The spring schedule will see the red, white and blue play in a pair of tournaments over spring break in Lake Mary, Florida, as Detroit competes in the Southern Quad (Mar. 6) and the Seminole State Spring Break Invitational (Mar. 8-9).
Detroit will stay south with the Dayton Challenge, hosted by Dayton at the Magnolia Grove Golf Club in Mobile, Alabama, on March 26 before finishing the regular season at the IPFW Spring Classic (Apr. 3-4) and Bowling Green's Dolores Black Falcon Invitational (Apr. 9-10).
The Horizon League Championship is back in the Sunshine State as the conference will battle it out for the crown on the Las Colinas Course at the Mission Inn Resort in Howey-In-The-Hills, Florida, from Apr. 22-24.
