ST. SIMONS ISLAND — University of North Georgia women's golfer Maddie Ananthasane was named the 2021-22 Peach Belt Conference Player of the Year ahead of the league's championship tournament Thursday afternoon.
Ananthasane continued to shine in her second collegiate season. The sophomore from Dacula, Georgia, won her first two tournaments of the year at the UIndy Invitational and the DBU Women's Classic. She is one of only two PBC players with multiple wins on the season and leads the PBC in stroke average. In nine events this season, she finished in the top 10 five times with four top fives. The defending PBC Individual Champion and All-American also had the low round of the conference with a six-under 66 in the first round at the DBU.
Ananthasane becomes only the third player in league history to be named the Freshman of the Year and the Player of the Year, joining Lander's Teresa Caballer Hernani in 2013 and Montevallo's Elaine Wood in 2014 and 2015. She keeps the PBC Player of the Year award with the Nighthawks for the fourth time in the last five years as Megan Sabol claimed the honor in 2018, 2020 and 2021. Additionally, she earned first team All-Conference honors this season.
Meanwhile, men's head coach Bryson Worley earned Coach of the Year honors for the first time in his career while three UNG men's golfers were named to the Peach Belt Conference All-Conference teams.
In his fourth season as the head coach at North Georgia, Worley has elevated the program into a national power. The Nighthawks are ranked No. 7 in the nation by the GCAA and No. 8 in the Golfstat relative rankings. UNG won back-to-back tournaments with wins at the 22-team Spring Kickoff Intercollegiate and the 17-team Hurricane Invitational. UNG finished in the top five in five of their 10 events this season and have the second-lowest team stroke average in the Peach Belt. Worley becomes the first UNG men's golf coach to be named the PBC Coach of the Year.
Evan Thompson earned first team All-Conference honors, having the third lowest stroke average in the conference at 71.6. He earned PBC Golfer of the Week back on February 17 after winning the Spring Kickoff Intercollegiate and leading UNG to the team title in the event. It is his first All-Conference honor of his career.
Stephen Kinsel and Noah Zediker each were named to the second team. Kinsel won the Tennessee River Rumble and is tied for eighth in the league in stroke average at 72.1. Zediker has three top 10 finishes on the season and is 10th in the conference at a 72.2 stroke average.
North Georgia will look for their first every PBC Championship this weekend, starting tomorrow off the first tee at Sea Palms Resort at 9:30 a.m.
