Posted: Jun 16, 2026

2025-26 Women's Golf Season Recap

LIMA, OH - After a runner-up finish in a transition year last season, UNOH women's golf got themselves back on top of the conference in 2026 under the leadership of new head coach Phil Gunder. The Racers went 32-3 against all WHAC competition improving from 30-16 last year for the program's biggest year-over-year improvement since the 2016-17 season. They improved their team average by almost 16 strokes and claimed the WHAC title over last seasons champion Lawrence Tech for the program's seventh conference championship in nine years.

The team won tournament titles three other times during the campaign with the first two coming in the fall at the Maggie Mountain Invitational in September and the Indiana Tech Intercollegiate in October. The third came in the final event before the WHAC tournament where UNOH topped Grace by six strokes at the LTU Spring Shootout where they opened with their lowest round of the season, 307 (+19), to lead wire-to-wire.

Freshman Molly Douglas made a big impact in her first season picking up all three of the team's individual medals and earning the honor of WHAC Newcomer of the Year. Her 78.50 average was the team's top score continuing the program's tradition of success as the fifth straight individual medalist at the conference tournament and seventh Racer in the last ten seasons. Kudzai Mandava finished just a fraction of a stroke back from her teammate in the final averages ending the year at 78.64 with six top five finishes in nine events. Douglas and Mandava were both named first team all conference with another freshman, Luise Pekoll, earning second team honors. Pekoll would go on to lead the team on the biggest stage with her best 36-holes of the season at the NAIA National Championship where she shot 158 and finished in the top 50 before cuts in the field of 154 golfers. Riley Daeger saw the team's biggest improvement year-to-year shaving nearly 50 strokes off her average last season and setting new career marks for 36 and 54-hole tournaments at the TU-WU Spring Christmas Classic and LTU Heritage Hill Collegiate, respectively. She recorded her lowest single round score of her career in the second round of Heritage Hill where she carded an 88.

Kayla Watkins and Mandava were both named NAIA Scholar-Athletes giving the program more than one mention for four consecutive years with each also earning WHAC All-Academic honors.