Cullowhee, N.C. – The defending event champion from the 2023 season, Western Carolina women's golf returns to the Mimosa Hills Intercollegiate on Monday and Tuesday hosted by Appalachian State at the par-72, 6,130-yard Mimosa Hills Golf Club in Morganton, N.C., in its final tune-up before the Southern Conference Championship.
 
Teams are slated to play 36 continuous holes on Monday, April 1, with a shotgun start at 8:30 a.m. The final round is set for Tuesday, April 2, with a 9 a.m. shotgun start.
 
In addition to the Catamounts and the host Mountaineers, the eight-team field includes Southern Conference foes The Citadel and Wofford, as well as golfers from Gardner-Webb, North Carolina A&T, North Carolina Central, and Presbyterian. At 144th nationally, WCU enters the week as the highest-ranked team in this year's Mimosa Hills Intercollegiate field in the NCAA Division I women's rankings through Spikemark.
 
Teeing off between holes No. 1 and No. 5, WCU's scoring five will be paired with golfers from App State and Wofford for Monday's 36 holes.
 
Last year, the Catamounts put four golfers inside the individual Top 10 to claim team championship honors by five strokes over runner-up Georgia Southern, 899-to-904. WCU's scoring five was paced by Brie Mapanao in the runner-up position with Kaitlyn Wingean finishing sixth, followed by Elizabeth Lohbauer and Victoria Ladd in a tie for 8th overall.
 
The Mimosa Hills win was the fourth in a historic 2022-23 season for the Catamount women's golf program.
 
Mapanao leads the Catamount scoring five into this year's tournament with fifth-year senior Victoria Ladd playing as the No. 2 seed with junior Elizabeth Lohbauer seeded third. Mapanao ranks sixth in the SoCon seasonal scoring through 21 rounds at 73.29 this season with Lohbauer ranked 10th with a 74.48 stroke average. Rounding out WCU's scoring five are sophomore Sadler Miller and redshirt junior Kayleigh Baker. Junior Kaitlyn Wingnean, coming off her career-best finish last season, will compete unattached as an individual.
 
"With this being our last regular-season event before the Southern Conference championship, we are looking forward to getting more tournament practice on grass very similar to that of Moss Creek – which is hard to find around Cullowhee," said WCU head coach Courtney Gunter. "We are also excited to play closer to home where many of our families and friends are able to watch us play. If you're able to come out to Mimosa Hills for a little while on Monday or Tuesday, please do! We want to paint that course PURPLE and GOLD!"
 
Following this week's tournament in Morganton, the Catamounts turn their attention to the 2024 Southern Conference Women's Golf Championship to be held April 14-16, on the South Course at the Moss Creek Golf Club on Hilton Head Island, S.C. The conference championship winner garners the league's automatic bid to an NCAA regional. Third at last year's tournament, WCU has twice won the SoCon Championship, doing so back in 2003 and most recently in 2007.
 
Keep track of everything related to Catamount women's golf and WCU Athletics through its social media outlets on Facebook (fb.com/catamountsports), Instagram (@wcu_catamounts), and Twitter (@catamounts, @CatamountWGolf).