Cox Leads Mean Green Trio On All-CUSA Team

DALLAS – Despite having the season cut short by the COVID-19 pandemic in mid-March days after winning their first tournament in nine years, the UNT women's golf team got some consolation to a promising season cut short on Wednesday with the release of the All-Conference USA team.

UNT landed three players on the team, voted upon by the league's coaches, led by senior Lauren Cox.

Cox, who will return this coming year thanks to the NCAA's waiver after the pandemic cancelation, became the first UNT player to earn first-team C-USA honors after the 2019-20 season and repeated the feat this season by rewriting her own records in what was supposed to be her final season in Denton. She was a second-team honoree as a sophomore. She was joined by teammates Audrey Tan, who received second-team honors, and Patricia Sinolungan, who got a third-team nod.

"I am thrilled to see Lauren, Audrey and Patty receive recognition from the conference," UNT coach Michael Akers said. "They certainly deserve to be all-conference, as they work very hard. In fact, they are three of the hardest workers I have ever coached."

Cox broke her own scoring average record, which she set last year by breaking a 16-year-old mark, by averaging a 73.30 in her eight tournaments – her last coming at the BYU Entrada Classic, where she became the first UNT player to win a tournament since 2012-13 while also leading her team to a championship. In her eight starts, she had six top-20 finishes and three top-10s.

Tan, a sophomore, improved her stroke average by more than a stroke-and-a-half from her freshman mark and posted a 74.22 average in her eight tournaments, putting her third all-time in program history behind only Cox's last two seasons. She had five top-20 showings in her eight starts and had a career-best showing at the Entrada Classic, when she finished tied for third.

Sinolungan, also a sophomore, finished the year with a 74.87 scoring average in her eight starts, which is the fifth-best single-season mark in program history. She had five top-25 showings and her T-4th finish at the Marilynn Smith Sunflower Invitational was a career-best. Her round of 68 in that tournament also tied Cox for the best round of the season by a UNT player.

"Lauren has come so far in four years, it is incredible," Akers said. "Audrey and Patty both were only 17 years old during their freshman season. I love it when hard work meets opportunity. These three are leading this program to new heights."

The three honorees mark the first time UNT has had multiple players on the Conference USA team and is the second-most all-conference honorees behind the 2010-11 team, which had four players named to the Sun Belt all-conference team.

With all three returning, along with everyone else who played in 2019-20, Akers said the future of his program is in great hands.

"Our future is extremely bright as we have these three leaders coming back, along with four other very talented golfers," Akers said. "I am very excited to get back to tournament golf in the fall."

Calendar

Upcoming Events

Players Mentioned

Lauren Cox

Audrey Tan

Upcoming Events

University of North Texas Athletics