FARGO, N.D. – April 24 will be a day that is remembered for the North Dakota State women's golf program for a long time.
On April 24, 2012, Amy (Anderson) Olson won her second Summit League individual championship. The Bison finished second as a team, coming within four strokes of Oral Roberts. The Golden Eagles were the only program in Summit League history to win a title, while it was the first time any school had come within 27 strokes of Oral Roberts. It was also the highest finish at a conference championship in program history for the Bison.
"I remember that day like it was a year ago," NDSU head coach Matt Johnson said. "I thought we were maybe going to win. We were playing so well and just rolling. We needed Oral Roberts to make a mistake or two, but they didn't. That was a tournament that made us feel that we were capable and came into play in 2013."
One year to the day later, on April 24, 2013, NDSU made history. The Bison won the team title by 11 strokes, becoming the first school other than Oral Roberts to win a team title. Olson won her third-straight individual title, becoming the first player in Summit League history to accomplish the feat.
"It was a tough course and we played pretty well to have a big lead," Johnson said. "We went into the third round just trying to hold on to the lead and panicked a little bit. In the end, we got it done. We had never done that before and it was a big day."
The victory was the 20th and final win of Olson's career at NDSU, setting an NCAA record. The record still stands today.
"Amy was Amy," Johnson said. "She was going to play well. As good as she was, she was going to win and sometimes she wasn't. I think the record was something we appreciated more after the fact. It was never really the focus going through the season, it was more so on the team and could we win the conference."
On April 24, 2018, the Bison women won their second Summit League title. It was a total team effort, as the Bison led by 10 strokes after the first round and 13 after the second, finishing with a four-stroke victory over Denver. Senior Natalie Roth led the individual race after the opening round, while sophomore Sierra Bennion had the lead after the second round. Roth finished second, while freshman Taylor McCorkle took fourth. Bennion finished in sixth.
"We had a lot of good teams in the conference that year," Johnson said. "You have some teams that have the talent and ability to do things, but don't have the belief that they can accomplish something. That team did. They went in with confidence and believed that if they played well, that they were capable of winning. Natalie was the leader. We had two really good freshman in Taylor and Alexis Thomas. Emma Groom had just won the tournament before. Sierra was leading the tournament after two rounds and was the one that put things over the top."
