SPARTANBURG, S.C. – Western Carolina freshman Maddi Caldwell has been named the Southern Conference Women’s Golfer of the Week for all competition from March 23-29. The selection is made by the league office.

Caldwell posted the first two top-10 finishes of her career on the week. The rookie from Dawsonville, Ga., finished first among 20 competitors in a tri-match with Wofford and Gardner-Webb at The Cliffs at Mountain Park on Thursday, firing a 1-over-par 73 to win the one-round tournament. The score would stand as her best collegiate round for less than a week.

After notching her first career win, Caldwell tied for ninth out of 84 competitors with an 8-over 224 at the John Kirk Panther Intercollegiate at Eagle’s Landing Country Club. She turned in rounds of 73, 79 and 72, jumping 17 spots in the standings in Tuesday’s final round. After matching her career low round in Sunday’s opening round, Caldwell lowered that by a stroke with Tuesday’s even-par finish en route to the best 54-hole total of her young career.

Caldwell helped the Catamounts tie for fifth in the 15-team field.

Of the six weekly awards doled out by the SoCon this season, four have gone to freshmen.

Western Carolina wraps up its regular season at the Rebel Intercollegiate in Oxford, Miss., this weekend before heading to the Southern Conference Women’s Golf Championship at Savannah Quarters in Pooler, Ga., on April 10-12.

Also nominated: Hee Ying Loy (ETSU), Mary Augusta Janiga (Mercer) and Emily McLennan (Chattanooga).

2016 SoCon Women’s Golfer of the Week
Feb. 24 Payton Schanen, Mercer
March 2 Emily McLennan, Chattanooga
March 9 Haylee Harford, Furman
March 16 Hee Ying Loy, ETSU
March 23 Emily McLennan, Chattanooga
March 30 Maddi Caldwell, Western Carolina

-www.SoConSports.com-