HAVRE DE GRACE, Md. -- Closing out the fall portion of the 2024-25 season with an emphatic exclamation point, the Christopher Newport women's golf team secured both the individual and team championships at the Alvernia Fall Invitational on Wednesday. Junior
Katie Watson (+14) earned her first career victory while the Captains (+75) picked up team's seventh tournament title since the start of the program in 2017.
As a team, the CNU women's golf team earned the first win since the 2021 VSGA Women's Intercollegiate. Firing a 75-over 651 (320-331), the Captains outpaced the second place Alvernia squad by 13 strokes. York (Pa.) finished third at +103 while Southern Virginia (+109), and West Chester (+128) rounded out the top five in the event.
The highlight in the win came out of the bag of junior
Katie Watson, whose 76 on day two elevated her into a tie for individual medalist honors with York's Victoria Jolakian. With the established tiebreaker being the back nine, Watson was awarded the individual title after saving her best for last with an even par 36 on the final nine holes.
The junior from Mechanicsville, Va. dropped in four birdies in the second round, including three in a stretch of five holes on the back. After making the turn at 40, Watson went par-par-birdie-par-birdie to start working her way through the end of the round. An unfortunate double bogey on the 511-yard par five 15th marred an otherwise spectacular finish that included a rebound on 16 for birdie on the 387-yard par four.
Watson becomes just the third CNU player to win individual medalist honors. She joins All-American Erica Whitehouse, who won seven events, and
Maddie Stokes, who captured a victory last Fall at the Chick-Fil-A Collegiate Invite.
The course played tough for the 40-player field, with Watson's third 76 of the season holding as one of only six sub-80 rounds in the two-day event. Teammate
Elena Rezac had one of the other five when she finished four-over on day one and the senior finished just two strokes back of the tie for first with a 16-over 160 (76-84). Rezac knocked in ten more pars on day two to finish with an 84.
Ayla Browning tied for seventh at 20-over with a 164 (82-82) and
Alex Delgado took 12th place with a 169 (80-89) after finishing at 25-over par. Browning had seven pars and ranked second on the team with two birdies on the day. Delgado added nine pars in the round and closed out with a 43. Finally,
Hannah Willman recorded two more pars for the Captains and finished the round with a 99 (52-47).
The Captains close out the fall with the strong performance and will return to the course for the second half of the 2024-25 season this Spring.
