Women's Golf at the Williams Invitational
Saturday, September 27 | 12:30 p.m.
Sunday, September 28 | 8:30 a.m.
Taconic Golf Club | Williamstown, Mass. 

WHAT TO KNOW
•    The Babson will tee it up against the top programs in the northeast region in its first stroke play event of the season on Saturday and Sunday at Taconic Golf Club. 
•    The Beavers and their counterparts will play 18 holes on both Saturday and Sunday. 

THE COURSE
•    Taconic Golf Club, a 5,826-yard par-71 layout built in 1927, has hosted three USGA Championships and four NCAA Championships in its storied history.
•    Taconic also was recently ranked No. 3 on the top campus courses you can play list by Golfweek.

2024 WILLIAMS FALL INVITATIONAL HIGHLIGHTS
•    Sophomore Alice Zhu opened with a 4-over 75 and tied for 15th place at 11-over 153 to help Babson tie for ninth place at last season's Williams Fall Invitational. 
•    Sophomore Camila Amaya shot 76-79 to tie for 26th position at 13-over and classmate Hannah McCarthy carded rounds of 78-82 to grab a share of 43rd place at 18-over for the Beavers, who opened with a score of 305 and posted a 36-hole total of 630 to finish four strokes out of sixth place. 

ABOUT THE BEAVERS
•    Babson opened the season by going 2-2 in the Ann Batchelder Match Play at Wellesley's Nehoiden Golf Club back on September 13-14. 
•    The Beavers defeated No. 8 Wellesley 3-2 and No. 9 Amherst 4.5-0.5 on day one before falling 3-2 to No. 14 Middlebury and 4-1 to No. 25 Bowdoin on day two. 
•    First-year Vanya Bansal won all four of her matches over two days, McCarthy went 3-1 and Zhu finished 2-2 for the Green and White, which got at least a half-point from all five players. 
•    Zhu, who led the team with a 75.93 stroke average, recorded two victories and five top-15 finishes, while junior Laura Lu posted a pair of top-five results and was second on the squad with a 77.18 average in 2024-25. 
•    McCarthy (78.75) and Amaya (79.20) both finished under par once last season, and fellow sophomore Jennie Pan concluded the year with a 79.20 stroke average in 10 rounds as a rookie. 

BANSAL EARNS BEAVERS' FIRST CWGC HONOR
•    After going 4-0 and recording rounds of 76-73 at the Ann Batchelder Match Play, Bansal was selected as the Colonial Women's Golf Conference (CWGC) Player of the Week last Wednesday. 
•    She was a 2&1 winner over both Renna Chang of Amherst and Jessica Li of Wellesley on the opening day of the event and followed it up with a 3&1 victory over Ella Han of Middlebury and a resounding 8&7 triumph over Emilia Rose of Bowdoin as part of a final round that saw her make four birdies. 
•    The Beavers joined the CWGC back in March alongside Carlow (Pa.), Christopher Newport (Va.), Johnson & Wales (N.C.), Kean (N.J.), Penn State Altoona, Salisbury (Md.), and Stockton (N.J.), and will play in the league's inaugural championship on October 27-28 at Wyncote Golf Club in Oxford, Pa. 

PROGRAM ON THE RISE
•    In just their second season as a varsity program, the Beavers produced a number of historic firsts last during the 2024-25 campaign, which included earning its first national ranking in late October while rising as high as No. 13 in the WGCA Division III poll.
•    Babson also peaked at No. 11 in the Scoreboard Division III rankings in December 2024 and won both the NEIGA Championship in October and the Camp Lejeune Intercollegiate in April. 

NUMBERS TO KNOW
•    The Beavers concluded the season with a 313.0 team scoring average, which was a 16-stroke improvement from their inaugural campaign in 2023-24. 
•    Babson's first round score of 305 at last year's Williams Invitational matched is the program's second lowest 18-hole score in program history behind its second round total of 298 at last September's Polar Bear Shootout in Brunswick, Maine. 
•    McCarthy owns an 80.25 stroke average and Amaya has an 81.00 scoring average in four rounds at Taconic Golf Club.  

ABOUT THE FIELD
•    Eight of the 19 programs set to compete in this weekend's tournament were ranked in the WGCA preseason top 25. 
•    Six of the top 14 teams in the poll – No. 7 Williams, No. 8 Wellesley, No. 9 Amherst, No. 10 NYU, No. 12 Randolph-Macon and No. 14 Middlebury, will tee it up at Taconic GC, in addition to No. 21 Hamilton and 25th-ranked Bowdoin. 
•    Williams boasts top-three finishes in each of the last three seasons, which includes a victory in 2023, while NYU won the 2022 event and came in second last fall. 

UP NEXT
•    The Beavers travel to Brunswick, Maine, for Bowdoin's Polar Bear Shootout on October 4-5.