June 30, 2015
NOTRE DAME, Ind. — Call it the 15th club in the bag, used with as much precision and confidence as a driver, putter or 52-degree wedge. For the University of Notre Dame women’s golf team, this extra club isn’t built of graphite, steel or titanium, but rather constructed in the classroom — intelligence.
For the second consecutive year, the Fighting Irish had four student-athletes — Ashley Armstrong, Talia Campbell, Jordan Ferreira and Kelli Oride — chosen for the All-Atlantic Coast Conference (ACC) Academic Women’s Golf Team, which was announced recently by the league office.
Since joining the ACC prior to the 2013-14 season, Notre Dame is tied with Duke and Miami with eight All-ACC Academic Team selections, one back of Florida State for the most by any conference school in that two-year span. The Fighting Irish women’s golf team also picked up its seventh Notre Dame Team Academic Award in the past seven years at the University’s OSCARS athletics awards gala last month after combining to register a 3.458 grade-point average during the spring 2014 semester.
A senior captain and three-time Academic All-America choice, Armstrong (Flossmoor, Ill./Homewood-Flossmoor) led this year’s Fighting Irish ACC academic foursome, making the All-ACC Academic Team for the second consecutive season after twice garnering similar honors (2012 and 2013) during Notre Dame’s membership in the BIG EAST Conference. Armstrong is the 10th Fighting Irish women’s golfer in the program’s 27-year history to be a four-time conference all-academic team honoree, after becoming the 11th three-time Academic All-America selection (first from the women’s golf program) in the 128-year history of Fighting Irish athletics.
Armstrong completed her Notre Dame career with a 74.98 stroke average, the third-lowest mark in school history. She also carded a career-low 74.10 season stroke average (fourth in the school’s record book and 13th in the ACC) in 2014-15 and posted four top-10 finishes while tying for team-high honors with seven rounds under par, including a team-best four rounds in the 60s.
In addition, the two-time Fighting Irish captain received an ACC Postgraduate Scholarship and Notre Dame’s Byron V. Kanaley Award (the highest honor awarded to a graduating Fighting Irish student-athlete) in 2015, becoming the first women’s golfer to receive the ACC scholarship and the second Kanaley award winner in program history. Armstrong graduated last month from Notre Dame’s College of Engineering with her degree in mechanical engineering on the strength of a 3.90 grade-point average.
Campbell (Dallas, Texas/Ursuline Academy) earned her second consecutive All-ACC Academic Team citation following a BIG EAST All-Academic Team certificate her freshman season. Campbell also is one of nine ACC golfers this season to pair All-ACC honors with All-ACC Academic Team laurels.
Campbell recorded a 73.43 stroke average this past season, the second-lowest mark in program history and ninth-best in the ACC in 2014-15. Ranked 55th in the year-end Golfstat rankings, Campbell, who is enrolled in Notre Dame’s top-ranked Mendoza College of Business as a finance major, will carry a 74.67 career stroke average into her final college season, the second-best career ratio in school history.
Ferreira (University Place, Wash./Bellarmine Prep) likewise received her second All-ACC Academic Team nod in as many years. Ferreira carded a 74.56 stroke average this past year, good for sixth on the Fighting Irish single-season chart and 23rd among all conference golfers. Ferreira also has logged a 75.39 career stroke average through her first two seasons, currently owning the fifth-lowest all-time mark in the Notre Dame record book.
Ferreira is enrolled in Notre Dame’s College of Science, where she is pursuing a science-preprofessional (pre-med) major.
Oride (Lihue, Hawaii/Lihue) also picked up her second career conference all-academic award, having earned the same distinction from the BIG EAST in 2013. Oride, who graduated last month from Notre Dame’s Mendoza College of Business with a degree in finance and a minor in sustainability, finished with a 77.53 career stroke average, the 12th-best mark on the Fighting Irish scrolls.
Campbell and Ferreira are among three starters (along with sophomore-to-be Kari Bellville) and five veterans returning next season. They will be joined by a strong incoming freshman class that includes two of the top 30 finishers at this month’s Rolex/American Junior Golf Association (AJGA) Tournament of Champions — Maddie Rose Hamilton (finished fifth, now ranked No. 17 in Class of 2015 by Golfweek) and Emma Albrecht (placed 27th, rising to No. 38 nationally among incoming freshmen, according to Golfweek) — as well as Isabella DiLisio, who was a member of the 2015 USA Junior World Cup Team that finished fourth at that international competition earlier this month in Japan (DiLisio is currently ranked 27th in the Class of 2015 by Golfweek).
Notre Dame is one of two schools in the country (along with Georgia) with three incoming freshmen ranked among the top 50 in the Golfweek Power 50 index.
For more information on the Notre Dame women’s golf program, sign up to follow the Fighting Irish women’s golf Twitter pages (@NDsidMasters or @NDwomensGolf) or register for the Irish ALERT text-messaging system through the “Fan Center” pulldown menu on the front page at UND.com.
— Chris Masters, Associate Athletic Communications Director