After failing to qualify for the NCAA Championship last season, the North Carolina women’s golf team looks to turn the page as it begins its 2018-2019 campaign.
Last season, the Tar Heels finished ninth in the NCAA San Francisco Regional. Since they did not finish in the top six, they failed to qualify for the NCAA Championship. It was the first time in three seasons that UNC failed to qualify.
The showing at the NCAA Regional followed an eighth-place finish at the ACC Championship, an event that concluded on April 23.
Although the team lost two seniors, Cheni Xu and Bryana Nguyen, at the end of last season, two first-years are now looking to fill the void — Jennifer Zhou and Nicole Lu.
Associate head coach Kristen Simpson is also beginning her first season as a Tar Heel. Before heading to North Carolina, Simpson played collegiate golf at the University of Virginia. She played under current UNC women’s golf head coach Jan Mann in Charlottesville.
Once she got her master's degree in 2009, Simpson played professionally until 2011. That year, she also became the assistant head coach for both the men’s and women’s golf teams at Old Dominion University, a role she held until 2014.
After the 2014 season, she joined the University of Maryland women's golf staff and stayed there until coming to UNC in July. With Simpson’s help, the Terrapins finished in second place at the 2018 Big Ten Championship.
Simpson and the two newcomers are joining the six returning veterans on the team.
Sophomore Ava Bergner is returning for her second year. Last season, she was second on the team in stroke average at 74.00. Her stroke average in 2017-2018 was the second lowest for a first-year in the history of the program. In the final tournament of last season for UNC, Bergner shot 3-over-par and tied for 33rd place on the individual leaderboard.
