GREENVILLE, S.C. – The Furman women’s golf team is ranked 16th nationally according to the Golfweek preseason poll, released this week by the publication.

The Paladins, who placed 20th at the 2016 NCAA Championships, claimed their second straight SoCon Championship last season and return their top four golfers from 2016, including senior Taylor Totland, who tied for 20th among the individuals at last season’s national championships. Totland, the 2015 SoCon Player of the Year, and junior Alice Chen, the 2016 SoCon Co-Player of the Year, tied for the Paladin lead with a 73.3 stroke average last year, the third-best season stroke average in the history of the Furman program.

Totland and Chen were joined on the All-SoCon team last season by sophomore Haylee Harford, the 2016 SoCon Freshman of the Year. Junior Jacqueline Bendrick ranked fourth on the Paladin team with a 74.9 stroke average in 2015-16.

“It is nice that this group of women is being recognized as a preseason top 20 team,” said Furman head coach Jeff Hull, who is in his first season at the helm of the Paladin program. “We must continue to stick with our mission of daily improvement in order to justify this ranking, as we have the potential to be even better.”

Furman will open the 2016-17 season on Sept. 12-13 at the Minnesota Invitational in Minneapolis, Minn.

Complete rankings can be found at http://www.golfweek.com/2016/09/02/womens-college-golf-preseason-rankings-2016-17-fall/.

2016-17 Golfweek Preseason Rankings
1 UCLA
2 Arizona State
3 Georgia
4 USC
5 Duke
6 Alabama
7 Florida
8 Northwestern
9 Oklahoma State
10 Arkansas
11 Stanford
12 Arizona
13 Wake Forest
14 California
15 South Carolina
16 Furman
17 Florida State
18 Washington
19 Virginia
20 Texas A&M
21 Oregon
22 Iowa State
23 Tennessee
24 UNLV
25 Colorado
26 Ohio State
27 Texas
28 North Carolina
29 Pepperdine
30 Texas Tech