SPARTANBURG, S.C. – Furman junior Anna Morgan has been named the Southern Conference Women’s Golf Player of the Year in voting conducted by the league’s nine head coaches. ETSU’s Sera Hasegawa is the 2021-22 SoCon Freshman of the Year and Wofford’s Angie Ridgeway is the league’s coach of the year.
 
The league also named a 10-member all-conference team and a five-member all-freshman team, with the all-conference team determined by a combination of Golfstat rankings and coaches’ votes and the all-freshman team voted on by the coaches.
 
Morgan, the top-ranked golfer in the SoCon at No. 35 nationally, turned in seven top-10 finishes and five top-five finishes in 10 starts this season, including picking up wins at the Lady Paladin Invitational in September, establishing a new tournament record at 13-under par, and at the UNF Collegiate in March. Most recently, she tied for ninth at the SoCon Women’s Golf Championship. She was the SoCon Player of the Month in September, February and March and earned SoCon Player of the Week honors five times this season.

The Spartanburg, South Carolina, native, who leads the SoCon with a 72.21 stroke average over 29 rounds, also competed at the Augusta National Women’s Amateur, tying for 21^st. She is also an alternate for the U.S. Arnold Palmer Cup team.
 
Morgan, who earned All-SoCon honors for the second straight season, is the Paladins’ 18th SoCon Player of the Year. A Furman player has won the award in three of the last four years that it was awarded.
 
Hasegawa is third in the SoCon with a 72.52 stroke average this year. The rookie from Gifu, Japan, is the second-highest ranked player in the SoCon at No. 102 nationally. She posted four top-five finishes this season and finished in the top 20 in all eight tournaments in which she competed. Hasegawa tied for fifth at the SoCon Women’s Golf Championship. In addition to earning a spot on the All-Freshman team, Hasegawa is one of two freshman on the All-SoCon squad.
 
She is ETSU’s third SoCon Freshman of the Year and first since 2005. The Bucs did not participate in the SoCon from 2006-14.
 
Ridgeway becomes the first Wofford coach to be named the SoCon Coach of the Year in women’s golf. Now in her 18^th year at the helm, Ridgeway led the Terriers to their highest-ever finish at the SoCon Women’s Golf Championship, a runner-up showing, just four strokes back of Furman. Wofford, which was tied with the Paladins after two rounds of play at this year’s championship, also turned in its best-ever individual finish at the conference tournament, as Becca Earl, who earned a spot on the all-conference team, finished second, one stroke out of first.
 
Ridgeway guided Wofford to five top-five team finishes in 2021-22, including a pair of tournament titles, as the Terriers won the French Broad Collegiate in November for their first 54-hole tournament victory since 2012 and added the Islander Classic in February by shooting the second-best round in program history in the final round of the tournament. Wofford also saw Earl win the Lady Bison Bay Point Classic in February, tying the program record for individual victories with the third of her career.
 
SoCon champion Furman was well-represented on the All-SoCon team, with Sophia Burnett and Sarah-Eve Rhéaume joining Morgan on the squad. Burnett is ninth in the league in stroke average and finished fourth at the SoCon tournament, while Rhéaume is 12^th in stroke average and finished eighth at the league tournament.
 
Hasegawa was joined on the All-SoCon squad by ETSU teammate Hollie Muse, who finished third at the SoCon tourney and is sixth in the league in scoring average.

The SoCon individual champion, Chattanooga’s Dorota Zalewska, earned a spot on the all-conference squad. The junior from Szczecin, Poland, was the only player to finish under par at the SoCon championship, with her hole-in-one on the par-3 17^th hole in the final round proving the difference in her one-stroke win. She finished the season with consecutive individual wins and is second in the league in stroke average at 72.48. Zalewskwa was joined on the All-SoCon team by teammate Esme Hamilton, who tied for ninth at the SoCon tourney and is fifth in the league in stroke average this season.
 
Mercer’s Kate Song, the other freshman on the All-SoCon squad alongside Hasegawa, is 11^th in the league in stroke average and finished tied for fifth at the league tournament. UNCG is represented by Tara Bettle on the all-conference team after the graduate student turned in five top-five individual finishes this season.
 
ETSU and Mercer had two selections each to the All-Freshman team, with ETSU’s Sophie Bert joining Hasegawa and Mercer’s Mikayla Dubnik joining Song. Western Carolia’s Elizabeth Lohbauer rounded out the squad.
 
Both Furman and Zalewska clinched automatic berths to the NCAA regionals. The NCAA field will be announced live on Wednesday, April 27, at 4 p.m. (ET), on the Golf Channel.
 
2021-22 Southern Conference Player of the Year
Anna Morgan, Jr., Furman
 
2021-22 Southern Conference Freshman of the Year
Sera Hasegawa, ETSU
 
2021-22 Southern Conference Coach of the Year
Angie Ridgeway, Wofford
 
2021-22 All-Southern Conference Team
Sera Hasegawa, Fr., ETSU
Hollie Muse, Sr., ETSU
Sophia Burnett, So., Furman
Anna Morgan, Jr., Furman
Sarah-Eve Rheaume, Sr., Furman
Kate Song, Fr., Mercer
Tara Bettle, Gr., UNCG
Esme Hamilton, Jr., Chattanooga
Dorota Zalewska, Jr., Chattanooga
Becca Earl, Sr., Wofford
 
2021-22 All-Freshman Team
Sophie Bert, ETSU
Sera Hasegawa, ETSU
Mikayla Dubnik, Mercer
Kate Song, Mercer
Elizabeth Lohbauer, Western Carolina