CHICAGO, Ill. – After helping the Olivet Nazarene University women's golf team to a runner-up finish at the Chicagoland Collegiate Athletic Conference (CCAC) Tournament, Mara Bakke, Lizzie Howard, and Alexandria Jones were named to the All-CCAC First Team as the league office announced its postseason golf awards Wednesday.
The trio make up the majority of the CCAC's five-member first team and record the third straight year where ONU has had two players or more named to the all-conference first team. Bakke received her first recognition from the conference while Howard and Jones were both repeat selections after landing on the all-CCAC first team in 2023.
Bakke, a sophomore from Sun Prairie, Wis., averaged a team-best 85.89 strokes over 19 rounds this year. She posted four top-five finishes, capped off by her individual-medalist finish at the CCAC Championships where she fired consecutive rounds of 83 to best the field by 11 strokes. Bakke earned fourth-place finishes at both of ONU's home events, the Spring Tiger Invite and the Rail Tournament, and tied for fourth at the Tri-State Invitational in the fall.
Howard, last season's CCAC Freshman of the Year, played her best golf down the stretch this spring. The sophomore from Dunlap, Ill., fired rounds of 83 and 82 to claim medalist honors and led the team to victory at their home Spring Tiger Invite, which she then followed up with an all-tournament finish at the CCAC Championships where she earned a tie for third place. Howard is third on the team with an 87.79 scoring average over 19 rounds.
Jones earned her second-consecutive all-CCAC first team selection after a consistently-strong senior season, a season in which she was twice named the CCAC Women's Golfer of the Week. The Bloomington, Ill., native posted the second-best scoring average on the team, an 87.63 over 19 rounds this season. She was the only member of the ONU squad that posted multiple rounds in the 70s, highlighted by the team's lowest round of the season at 77 in the Battle at Blackthorn.
--ONU—
*Contact: Evan Wild, Sports Information Director, ewwild@olivet.edu