CHARLOTTESVILLE, Va. – The No. 11 Virginia women’s golf team competes at the ACC Championships starting Thursday at the Sedgefield Country Club in Greensboro, N.C. Virginia enters the tournament as the No. 4 seed in the 12-team field based on Golfstat rankings.
Live scoring for ACC Championship will be available online at Golfstat.com.
Format
The 2021 Championship features a new format that advances the top four teams to match play following 54 holes of stroke play. Thursday’s opening day of stroke play starts at 8 a.m. and features 36 holes of competition with the final round of stroke play getting underway at 9 a.m. on Friday. The semifinals of match play are scheduled for Saturday starting at 9 a.m. and the finals take place Sunday beginning at 9 a.m.
ACC Women’s Golf Championship First Round Pairings (Thursday, April 15):
8-8:40 AM: #10 NC State, #11 Notre Dame, and #12 Boston College (starting on Hole #1)
8:50-9:30 AM: #7 Miami, #8 Louisville, and #9 North Carolina (starting on Hole #1)
8-8:40 AM: #4 Virginia, #5 Virginia Tech, and #6 Clemson (starting on Hole #10)
8:50-9:30 AM: #1 Duke, #2 Wake Forest, and #3 Florida State (starting on Hole #10)
UVA Lineup
The Cavaliers’ lineup features senior Beth Lillie (Fullerton, Calif.), junior Riley Smyth (Cary, N.C.), sophomores Virginia Bossi (Como, Italy) and Celeste Valinho (Jacksonville, Fla.) and freshman Jennifer Cleary (Wilmington, Del.). They have been UVA’s lineup for all seven tournaments this season.
Lillie leads UVA with a 72.75 stroke average and has posted scores of par-or-better in 10 of her 16 tournament rounds this season. Smyth is right behind her with a stroke average of 72.81. Lillie ranks No. 70 in the most recent Golfstat individual rankings while Smyth figures 59th in that poll.
The Field (with Golfstat rankings)
Duke (2), Wake Forest (3), Florida State (8), Virginia (11), Virginia Tech (16), Clemson (34), Miami (35), Louisville (48), North Carolina (57), NC State (91), Notre Dame (112) and Boston College (141).
Tournament History
The 2021 ACC Championships marks Virginia’s 17th appearance at the event. In addition to winning titles in 2015 and 2016, the Cavaliers were the runners up in 2014, 2010, 2008 and 2006. Brittany Altomare became the first UVA player to win the event in 2013. Lauren Coughlin took medalist honors in 2016. Briana Mao tied for first in 2015 but lost a playoff for the individual trophy.
Duke leads all schools with 21 ACC titles and has produced 19 individual medalists. Wake Forest is second with six titles, followed by North Carolina and Virginia with two each.
Last Time
The 2020 championships were canceled due to the pandemic and suspension of all spring sports. The last time the event was held was 2019. Wake Forest won that tournament with a team score of 850 to finish the championship 14-under-par (winning by eight strokes). It was Wake Forest’s sixth ACC Championship in program history and first since 2010. Emilia Migliaccio put together an outstanding performance to claim the individual title at 11-under-par 205, the best individual score at Sedgefield and one stroke shy of the individual record for an ACC Championship.