University of Findlay's women's golf team wins first national title

GAINESVILLE, Ga. —Heading into the NCAA Division II national championships last week, the University of Findlay women's golf team was 7-0 in tournaments. Now, the Oilers finished their spring campaign with a perfect 8-0 record and leave the Chattahoochee Golf Club in Gainesville, Georgia with a national championship after beating No.3-ranked Limestone University in medal match play, 3-2. It's the first national title in women's golf history and the first national title by any Findlay team since 2009, when the men's basketball team also went undefeated to win the national title. "What we did this spring—and I told the girls this after we finished—I said that this is one-in-a-million," UF head coach Dom Guarnieri said Saturday. "To win every tournament we played in and what they did this week to even give ourselves a chance by what we did on the last six holes of stroke play was remarkable. I said to them, 'Nobody can take this away from you, you're always going to be a national champion and you should cherish it.'" It wasn't just winning the national title, it's how the Oilers got to the top. UF's Jill Schmitmeyer fired a round of 69 and cruised to an eight-stroke win over LU's Lena Schilowsky, while Kniesly (70) beat Taylor Oberparleiter by five strokes, putting the Oilers up 2-0 after the No.1 and No.2 golfers finished. Limestone won the next two matches as Maria Morales (74) bested UF's Mary Kelly Mulcahy (77) by three strokes and Stina Wikstrom bested Findlay's Gabby Woods by four strokes (74-78). Things looked bleak midway through the back nine for the Oilers' chances as No.5, Erin Mulcahy was down by two with four holes left against Ebba Hellman, LU's No.1 golfer and two-time All-American. Erin Mulcahy trailed by three after the front nine. By the time she walked to No.16's tee box, Erin Mulcahy was up two strokes with two holes left. "I just knew that I had my play my game and let my opponent fall apart under the pressure. Coach always stresses that we need to stay composed, take the mental side out of the game and just focus on the next shot," Erin Mulchay said Sunday once the team came home. On No.17, Erin Mulcahy bogeyed, and Hellman doubled, putting her up one with the national championship on the line going into the final hole of the final round. After finding the fairway on her tee shot, Erin Mulcahy found the greenside bunker, while Hellman was inside 20 feet on the green. Mulcahy punched out from the bunker, landing it 15 feet away. Mulcahy eventually tapped in for a bogey after lipping out her 15-footer. Hellman's first putt landed four feet short of the hole and was left with that to keep their title hopes alive by forcing a playoff. She pulled her putt. And the Oilers were crowned national champions. "What Erin did on the back nine and shoot 37 to get the clinching-point, being the last match out there, playing an All-American—Ebba Hellman is just a phenomenal player from Limestone—and Erin didn't back down and got us the point we needed," Guarnieri said. "Because that's what it took." Mulcahy finished the round with a 79 and it was her only win in medal match play for the entire weekend. "When I was two-up standing on No.17, I knew that this was my chance to support the team and win my first match of the whole tournament," she said. "So, doing it on the last medal match of the whole tournament—winning my first ever medal match play—to win the national title was pretty amazing." A fitting ending for Erin Mulcahy's weekend. "She was due for this moment and we kept saying she was the sacrificial lamb for the two rounds. She was going off against the national freshman of the year and the national player of the year in the first and second matches," Kristina Kniesly said. "We kept telling her to pull through and that we believed in her, and obviously she did it because she's amazing, that's really all I can say. I think I blacked out running onto the green because I don't remember what happened other than just a bunch of screaming, crying and hugging."' Of course, it was quite a fitting ending to a week full of the dramatics for the Oilers. It came down to the wire on Wednesday, when Kniesly sunk a must-make putt on No.18 in the final round of stroke play to beat Henderson State, 913-914, to snag the final spot. The No.8-seeded Oilers then had a quarterfinal match against defending national champion and No.1-ranked team in the country, Dallas Baptist University, and eventually won, 3-2. In the semifinal, UF bested the No.5-ranked team, Barry University, in easy fashion, 4-1. Winning the final match was anything but easy. But the Oilers did it, and now they're national champions. "I honestly don't have the words for this quite yet, it was unreal," Kniesly said. "We keep saying that we can't believe we did this, but also can. We were fully prepared and qualified for it, but it's just the fact it actually happened. "We're from a small school in Northwest Ohio—we all grew up within two-and-a-half hours from here—and we're play teams with girls from all over the world. So this team with kids from Ohio and Indiana won the national title and it's just an amazing experience and I couldn't ask for much more."