Women's Golf | 10/10/2025 12:00:00 PM

TRAFFORD, Pa. (pacathletics.org) - Winners of seven consecutive Presidents’ Athletic Conference (PAC) Championships, the Westminster College women's golf program has been tabbed as the favorite for the 2025-26 season, according to the league's pre-championships coaches' poll. The results of the poll, voted on by the conference's 11 head coaches, were released with the PAC's Players to Watch List Friday.

This year’s PAC Championships will feature a 72-hole stroke play event, beginning with 36 holes played Monday-Tuesday, October 13-14 at the Avalon Golf and Country Club. The women will play a pair of rounds at Squaw Creek Golf Course in Vienna, Ohio.

The final 36 holes of this year’s championships will be played Friday-Saturday, April 24-25, 2026 at Mill Creek Metroparks and the Mill Creek Golf Course in Boardman, Ohio. The women will play two rounds on the North Course.

Westminster and head coach Matt Torrence, the 2025 PAC Coach of the Year, received nine first-place votes and totaled 99 points to finish first in this year's poll. They were followed by second-place Washington & Jefferson College, who gathered the final two first-place votes and accumulated 89 points.

Third place was a tie between Allegheny College and Grove City College with 72 points each. Saint Vincent College came in fifth place with 56 points, just ahead of sixth place Thiel College (55) and Geneva College in seventh (52). Rounding out the poll was Franciscan University in eighth (46), Waynesburg University in ninth (28) and Bethany College (26).

Although they will not score as a team at Championships, Hiram College will be competing at the event for the first time. The Terriers were in the PAC from 1971-89 and the PAC did not hold its first Women's Golf Championship until 1996, making this the initial season Hiram will be a part of the tournament.

Westminster and W&J were in a two-team dual through all four rounds of last year's Championships. The Titans built a six-shot advantage over the Presidents after the fall before Westminster scored the low spring rounds of 331 and 329 to finish with an overall winning total of 1,337 and capture their ninth PAC title in program history. W&J, who fired their lowest score of the Tournament with a 332 in the final spring round, finished in second place with a score of 1,352.

The Players to Watch list is marked by 10 returning all-conference players from last season, featuring four First Team All-PAC players. Both major award winners from last spring return this season, including the Player of the Year in Westminster junior Katie Rose Rankin and Geneva sophomore Madison Sharek, the 2025 PAC Newcomer of the Year.

Rankin used a solid back-nine in her final spring round to earn first place and Player of the Year last spring, as she logged four pars to finish out an 80 for the day and a four-round total of 329 to win by one stroke. The third-year Titan is entering the PAC Championship off two strong weekends. She was the PAC Player of the Week for Sept. 30 after she tied her two-round program record of 149 at the two-day Catholic University Fall Classic, which included six birdies in a program-record round of 71 in the final 18 holes. Rankin followed that with a seven-birdie performance in the first round of John Carroll University Invitational and she went on to finish tied for second with a 36-hole total of 156 (75-81).

Sharek has also continued to build off her award-winning season from last year. She finished seventh overall in 2025 with a score of 340 to earn Second Team All-PAC as well as the top newcomer honor. This year, she followed PAC Player of the Week honors for Sept. 2 after carding a 79 at the Youngstown State Kickoff by finishing first or tied for first in three other tournaments. Those included tying for the top spot at the Thiel Invitational (program-record tying 76) and outright winning the Saint Vincent Invitational (82) and Franciscan Invitational (80).

In their quest to unseat Westminster from the top spot in the conference, W&J will have three First Team All-PAC players back on the course this season. They include senior Megan Joyce, the runner-up to Rankin by one shot last year and now a three-time First Team All-PAC player in her career. Also back is senior MacKenzie Schmeltz, who placed third a year ago (348) for her third all-conference honor to go with a pair of previous Second Team awards, and junior Julia Barthelemy, who had the overall low score after the fall rounds at Squaw Creek (163) and finished tied for fourth overall for the tournament with a 336. 

The Players to Watch list also includes 11 members of the Spring 2025 PAC Academic Honor Roll, which recognizes student-athletes on varsity sports teams who earned a grade-point average (GPA) of 3.6 or higher on a 4.0 scale during their semester of competition.    

The All-PAC teams, along with the PAC Player of the Year and Newcomer of the Year, are determined by the combined 72-hole scores from the fall and spring championships. The All-PAC teams are made up of the top 15 overall scorers (5 first team, 5 second team, 5 honorable mention). The combined 72-hole team totals determine PAC team champions and winners of the league's automatic-qualifying bids to the Division III Championships.

The 2026 Division III Women's Championships are scheduled for May 19-22 at Desert Willow Golf Resort in Palm Desert, Calif.  
 

2025-26 PAC Women's Golf Pre-Championships Coaches' Poll (Predicted order of finish)
School (first-place votes)	Points	2024-25 Championships finish
1. Westminster College (9)	99	1st (of 6) at PAC Championships, 1337 [338-339-331-329]
2. Washington & Jefferson College (2)	89	2nd (of 6) at PAC Championships, 1352 [342-341-337-332]
3t. Allegheny College	72	3rd (of 6) at PAC Championships, 1435 [364-368-348-355]
3t. Grove City College	72	5th (of 6) at PAC Championships, 1523 [384-396-384-359]
5. Saint Vincent College	56	Completed fall rounds at PAC Championships/Individuals in spring
6. Thiel College	55	4th (of 6) at PAC Championships, 1498 [386-369-364-379]
7. Geneva College	52	Completed fall rounds at PAC Championships/Individuals in spring
8. Franciscan University	46	6th (of 6) at PAC Championships, 1656 [421-408-425-402]
9. Waynesburg University	28	Completed fall rounds at PAC Championships/Individuals in spring
10. Bethany College	26	Did not score as a team at PAC Championships
Hiram College	Individuals	6th (of 6) at NCAC Championships

2025-26 PAC Women's Golf Players to Watch
1=2025 1st Team All-PAC / 2=2nd Team All-PAC / HM = Honorable Mention

Allegheny College
Name	Yr.	Hometown/High School
Josephine Corey (HM)	Sr.	Lakewood, N.Y./Southwestern Central
Ada Cote'	So.	West Henrietta, N.Y./Rush-Henrietta
Kessler Potter	So.	Kents Store, Va./Fluvanna, County

 

Bethany College
Name	Yr.	Hometown/High School
Natalie DuShole	So.	Waterford, Pa./Fort Leboeuf

   

Franciscan University
Name	Yr.	Hometown/High School
Lauren David	Sr.	Grand Rapids, Mich./Homeschooled
Catherine Ehresman	Jr.	Mason, Mich./Mason
Natalie Smith	Fr.	Syracuse, N.Y./Kolbe Academy

 

Geneva College
Name	Yr.	Hometown/High School
Madison Sharek (2)	So.	Harmony, Pa./Homeschooled

 

Grove City College
Name	Yr.	Hometown/High School
Lauren Kardos (2)	Jr.	Pittsburgh, Pa./North Allegheny
Hailey Munoz	Sr.	Sparta, N.J./Morris Catholic

 

Saint Vincent College
Name	Yr.	Hometown/High School
Lucy Brayton (HM)	Jr.	Pittsburgh, Pa./Achievement House Charter
Myla Burchill	Fr.	Pittsburgh, Pa./Upper St. Clair
Liz DeLo	So.	Pittsburgh, Pa./Upper St. Clair

   

Thiel College
Name	Yr.	Hometown/High School
Emily Eutsey	So.	Jones Mills, Pa./Mount Pleasant
Kelsi Hefner	So.	Meadville, Pa./Meadville

   

Washington & Jefferson College
Name	Yr.	Hometown/High School
Julia Barthelemy (1)	Jr.	Crescent, Pa./Moon Area
Megan Joyce (1)	Sr.	Uniontown, Pa./Laurel Highlands
MacKenzie Schmeltz (1)	Sr.	Edwardsburg, Mich./St. Joseph
Brooke Vowcheck	Fr.	Peters Township. Pa./Peters Township

 

Waynesburg University
Name	Yr.	Hometown/High School
Avery Davis	Fr.	Waynesburg, Pa./Waynesburg Central
Abigail Noble	So.	West Alexander, Pa./McGuffey
Allison Wolling	Fr.	Bethel Park, Pa./Bethel Park

   

Westminster College
Name	Yr.	Hometown/High School
Olivia Kana	Sr.	North Huntingdon, Pa./Greensburg Central Catholic
Ava Liburdi (2)	So.	Hermitage, Pa./Hickory
CeCe Morgan	Fr.	Fairview, Pa./Cathedral Prep
Katie Rose Rankin (1)	Jr	Sewickley, Pa./North Allegheny
Alyssa Rapp (2)	Sr.	Poland, Ohio/Cardinal Mooney