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MSU women's golf sweeps awards for the first time in program history

April 27, 2017
<p>Women's golf head coach Stacy Slobodnik, left, talks with redshirt-junior Katie Sharp before a putt on Sept. 25, 2016 at Forest Akers West Golf Course. Slobodnik has held the head coaching position at MSU for 19 years.</p>

Women's golf head coach Stacy Slobodnik, left, talks with redshirt-junior Katie Sharp before a putt on Sept. 25, 2016 at Forest Akers West Golf Course. Slobodnik has held the head coaching position at MSU for 19 years.

For the first time in MSU women’s golf history, the Spartans swept the Big Ten Player, Freshman and Coach of the Year Honors, the conference announced on Tuesday.

Head coach Stacy Slobodnik-Stoll was voted the Big Ten Coach of the Year, while Allyson Geer was selected Big Ten Freshman of the Year and junior Sarah Burnham was named the Big Ten Player of the Year.

Geer and Burnham also earned First-Team All-Big Ten honors and junior Katie Sharp was the Spartans’ recipient of the Sportsmanship Award.

Slobodnik-Stoll’s Coach of the Year honor is the fourth in her 20 seasons at MSU.  

“It is a very rewarding feeling,” Slobodnik-Stoll told MSU Athletic Communications. “It is such a good lesson knowing that sometimes when things don’t go your way, you just keep enduring with the people around you, work hard and good things are going to happen. 

“This year has been a perfect example of that. We’ve really jelled as team the last couple of months. Kudos to our team for believing in themselves and the program throughout the year, and for taking the momentum and running with it over the last few weeks.”

Last weekend, Slobodnik-Stoll added onto MSU’s impressive season by leading the Spartans to their fourth Big Ten title in the last seven years and the sixth during her tenure at the helm.

MSU has placed in the top six of each of their last five tournaments and won their first tournament since 2014 at the Lady Buckeye Invitational earlier this month.

A native of Maple Grove, Minn., Burnham fired a school and Big Ten championship record 9-under-par 63 in the second round of the conference tournament. She finished the championship as the runner-up with a 5-under-par 211.  

“It’s phenomenal. Sarah just continues to get better and better,” Slobodnik-Stoll said to Athletic Communications. “Being named player of the year is an incredible accomplishment, and it puts her in select company. We are all thrilled for her.”

With a 72.17 scoring average, Burnham is on track to break her school single-season record of 72.42 set last season. 

She completed the regular season and conference championships with the highest Golfweek/Sagarin Big Ten player rating of 71.94.

Geer, who joined the Spartans in January and played in every tournament this spring, is the first Spartan to be named freshman of the year since Dayna Burleigh in 2003 and fourth in program history.

At the Big Ten Championships, Geer had her best tournament of the year as Brighton, Mich. native shot an even-par 216, including 2-under 70 in the final round, to take fourth place overall. Her 73.44 scoring average is second only to Burnham on the team and also posted the best Golfweek/Sagarin Big Ten player rating among conference freshmen with 72.77. 

“Ally had some ground to make up in order to receive this award,” Slobodnik-Stoll said. “She has had an incredible run thus far and she’s only getting better and better with each week. We put her in the lineup without any time to adjust and I just give her so much credit for her maturity.”

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