Olivet Nazarene Leads Pack of Women's Golf Postseason Award Winners

CHICAGO --- Olivet Nazarene University came away boasting nearly better than half of the 13 women's golf postseason honors when the Chicagoland Collegiate Athletic Conference announced its award winners on Thursday morning.  The Tiger program claimed six of the awards, including two of the top three individual honors and four of the ten all-conference spots.

Conference champion St. Ambrose University was next in line with three individuals being recognized.  The rest of the award distribution saw Viterbo collect a pair of honors, with Holy Cross College and Saint Xavier University each gaining one accolade.

A CCAC Freshman of the Year two years ago, Olivet Nazarene's Lizzie Howard (Dunlap, Ill.) gained the top award as the league's Player of the Year this time around.  The junior carried the lowest average in the conference at 86.35 over her 20 rounds played, with her top efforts being a pair of 78's.

Of the 11 matches Howard competed in, she came away with Top 10 honors seven times, highlighted by her medalist honors at last month's CCAC Championships, where she shot a 168 over the two rounds (81-87).  She was also fourth at the Clash at Cinder and fifth at both the Island Point Intercollegiate and the Conference Clash.

Howard was named to the all-conference first team for the third year in a row, as well.  She was joined by repeat selection Amara Lytle (Cedar Falls, Iowa) of St. Ambrose University.  The rest of the five-member team was made up of Holy Cross' Bianca Huizar (Winamac, Ind.), Viterbo's Lillia Rather (Waukesha, Wis.) and ONU's Taylor Ice (Salem, Ill.).

There was also a five-member second team.

Ice joined her teammate Howard in capturing one of the top individual awards, being recognized as the CCAC Freshman of the Year.  She averaged an 86.76 over her 21 rounds played, with five Top 10 finishes. 

Ice won the Conference Clash with her 172 over two rounds (82-90), while also placing third in the Clash at Cinder, tied for fourth at the Clarke University (Iowa) Fall Invite, tied for eighth at the Island Point Intercollegiate and tied for ninth at the Bill Johnson Memorial.  Her best round was a 77 at the Rumble at the Rock.

Rounding out the list of top individual winners was St. Ambrose head coach Kevin Kwak, who was named the CCAC Coach of the Year for the second consecutive season after leading the Fighting Bees to their second straight conference title.

For the full list of award winners, go to Awards.