Women Golfers are America East Champions

	Diane Onofry

The UAlbany women’s golf team captured the first-ever America East Conference championship last month. Junior Diane Onofry fired an 88, the best round of the day’s competition, to finish first. Junior Jill Friedman finished four strokes behind Onofry in second place with a total of 176 (86-90). The Great Danes finished with a 36-hole score of 723, and won by 20 strokes over second-place Boston University.

The America East Championship, the first for the women in league history, was conducted as a stroke play event with the top four of team's five golfers counting toward the team score in each round. Onofry, a junior who won medalist honors, carded an 84 to take the first-day lead, and finished with a two-round score of 172 on the par-72, 5,458-yard course. Albany head coach Richard "Doc" Sauers had three golfers among the top-five finishers, as Anne Lyons was fifth with rounds of 88 and 96.

Onofry and Friedman have been co-MVP’s for the past two years. “Both are terrific scholar athletes, said a proud Coach Sauers. “Jill Friedman was one of the UAlbany students selected to receive a Chancellor’s Award for Student Excellence and the entire team has the best GPA of all the athletic teams at the University.”

“Doc” Sauers began his seventh season last fall as the women’s golf head coach. He took over the program in its third year of existence in 1997-98 and made the transition from the Division II level to Division I level in 1999. Sauers coached the program’s first four-year Division I scholarship athlete in Katie Wachtl from 1999-2003. He is looking forward to having his four top starters back in the fall.