AUSTIN, TEXAS – Rising senior All-American Louise Rydqvist earned a spot on the 2023-24 Academic All-America® Women’s At-Large teams as selected by College Sports Communicators (CSC), the organization announced on Tuesday. She earned a spot on third team and is joined by fellow Gamecock student-athlete Skylar Allen from beach volleyball.
The women’s at-large teams are made up of nominated student-athletes from the sports of beach volleyball, bowling, crew/rowing, field hockey, golf, gymnastics, ice hockey, lacrosse, rifle, skiing and water polo. Rydqvist is one of six women’s golf student-athletes nationwide to make a team. She and Allen are the first Gamecocks since 2021 to earn All-America honors from the at-large team’s highly competitive pool of candidates. Overall, 15 Gamecock women have made an at-large team since the awards started in 1983.
Rydqvist maintained her perfect 4.0 GPA this academic year as a double major in finance and marketing. She was named the SEC Scholar Athlete of the Year for women’s golf. On the course she excelled as well with the best season of her career.
Rydqvist was the team’s top player this season and finished No. 12 in the final Clippd Player Rankings. The Värnamo, Sweden, native led the team with a 71.14 scoring average, the third-lowest single season mark in program history, shooting par or better in 20 of 29 rounds played. She had an impressive five top-five finishes (eight top-20s) in 10 stroke play starts. Rydqvist was runner-up medalist at both the SEC Championship and NCAA Auburn Regional and also went 7-0-1 in match play. She helped the team to four wins and a final ranking of No. 6 in the nation on the heels of the program’s fourth-straight NCAA Championship appearance. Rydqvist won her first career tournament at the season-opening ANNIKA Intercollegiate in the fall earning a sponsor exemption into The ANNIKA at Pelican on the LPGA TOUR in November of 2023 where she made the cut in her first career LPGA start.
For her performance this season, she was tabbed a WGCA First Team All-American and First Team All-SEC selection.
The full Women’s At-Large NCAA Division I Academic All-America® team can be found by clicking here.
For more information regarding the Academic All-America® program, visit academicallamerica.com.
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