Women’s Golf Opens 2023 Fall Season at Cougar Classic

HANAHAN, S.C. – The Penn State women’s golf team will travel to the 19th annual Cougar Classic hosted by the College of Charleston at Yeamans Hall Club this week.

Penn State took flight on Saturday and plays its practice round on Sunday with the tournament beginning early Monday morning with a 36-hole day followed by a final 18 on Tuesday.

NITTANY LION TRIO EARN B1G PRESEASON ACCOLADES

• Senior Mathilde Dellavallade (Royan, France) received her fourth consecutive preseason mention while junior classmates Michelle Cox (Allentown, Pa.) and Drew Nienhaus (St. Louis, Mo.) were honored for the first time in their careers.
• Delavallade set a single season scoring record for the Nittany Lions last season finishing the year with a 72.60 stroke average over 35 rounds of competition. The Royan, France native was also selected as an individual to compete in the NCAA Athens Regional. Delavallade used a Penn State 18-hole scoring record of 7-under, 64, to finish runner-up at the 2022 Cougar Classic and had five top-10 finishes throughout the year.
• Cox had her best showing of the year at the inaugural National Golf Invitational where she finished runner-up with a career-best 3-under, 213. Cox competed in each event last season posting a pair of top-five finishes.
• Nienhaus has competed in all 23 events since donning the Blue & White and had her best finish a season ago in the Nittany Lion Invitational where she tied for 11th with a 4-over, 220.

BEGINNING OF A NEW ERA

• This week will be the first time in 38 season’s that the Nittany Lions will play a tournament without Denise St. Pierre on the grounds after the longtime head coach announced her retirement last spring. Kristen Simpson is set to make her head coaching debut at the Cougar Classic.
• This season marks the first for Simpson as a head coach after having spent time as an assistant coach at Old Dominion (2011-14) and Maryland (2014-18), served as the associate head coach at North Carolina (2018-21) and was most recently the assistant coach at Wisconsin since July 2021.
• The 2023-24 campaign represents a return to the Big Ten for Simspon after serving as assistant coach at Maryland for four seasons helping coach the Terrapins to a second-place finish in the 2018 Big Ten Championships in her final season in College Park.

THE TEAM

• Delavallade finished first in…