Saluki Women's Golf: 2014-15 Season in Review

May 6, 2015

By Elizabeth Robinson
SIUSalukis.com

CARBONDALE, Ill. - It was a season filled with big accomplishments and tough competition for the SIU women's golf team. This season, the Salukis came away with six top-five team finishes and 12 top-five individual finishes. Overall, the team finished with a 313.21 four-player team average.

The fall season opened with back-to-back wins for the Salukis as they took titles at the Jan Weaver Invitational hosted by Murray State and at the inaugural Saluki Shootout. Sophomore Brooke Cusumano shot the Salukis' lowest score of the season at the Jan Weaver Invitational, finishing the second round with a 68.

Both tournaments ended in tight finishes, however, with a tiebreaker determining the overall winner at the Jan Weaver Invitational and one to decide the individual winner at the Saluki Shootout. Following the Saluki Shootout, junior Mattie Lindner earned MVC Player of the Week honors as a result of her runner-up finish after the tiebreaker.

In the spring season, SIU faced tough, major-school competitors at the Eagle Invitational in Ft. Myers, Fla., and at the Dr. Donnis Thompson Invitational in Oahu, Hawaii. There, the Salukis took on nationally-ranked teams such as Texas A&M, Oklahoma State and Baylor.

The Salukis came back from those tough tournaments, however, to top SIU-Edwardsville in a dual match with a team score of 289, the second-lowest 18-hole score in Saluki women's golf history.

SIU followed that strong performance with the team's fourth consecutive tournament title at the 21st annual Saluki Invitational. Junior Mattie Linder also finished as an individual medalist for the first time in her career, taking first at the tournament. Once again, Lindner was named MVC Player of the Week and also earned MVC Scholar-Athlete of the Week following her medalist finish.

To conclude the season, SIU was selected to finish sixth of the ten teams at the MVC Tournament in the pre-championship poll of league coaches with 55 points. The Salukis came away from the tournament with a third place finish overall and a second place individual finish by sophomore Brooke Cusumano. Cusumano also earned All-Conference and the prestigious MVC Elite-18 Award.

The Elite 18 Award honors the highest achievement in academics and athletics by a student-athlete in each MVC-sponsored sport, and is awarded to the student-athlete with the highest cumulative grade point average after competing in the athlete's respective sport's championship. Cusumano is the first women's golfer from SIU and only the ninth Saluki all-time to earn the Elite 18 award since it was first given in 2011. She currently has a 4.0 cumulative GPA in accounting.

Following the championships, Cusumano and Lindner both earned MVC Scholar-Athlete recognition.

This year's team will lose two players - Whitney Nugent who graduated in the fall and Kris Grimes who will graduate after this semester. Grimes finished the MVC Tournament with the only eagle of the weekend, and ended the season shooting an average of 79.42.

At the conclusion of the 2014-15 season, head coach Alexis Mihelich totals 12 team tournament titles and nine individual tournament titles in her four years at the helm. In addition, the Salukis have earned four team runner up finishes and six individual runner ups under Mihelich. In 48 total tournaments spanning four seasons, the Salukis have finished in the top five 34 times.