Look Back: Gamecocks Take 2015 NCAA Regional

Starting with the 2015 season the Gamecocks did something no other Carolina team had done at that time by winning three consecutive NCAA Regionals. Starting today, what would have been the first day of the 2020 NCAA Regionals, we’re going to look back at each of the three consecutive regional wins. We spoke with head coach Kalen Anderson, along with some of the players from each of those teams to get some insights into how things unfolded at those tournaments and how the Gamecocks cemented themselves as a consistent threat at the national level over those three years.
 
Entering the 2015 postseason the South Carolina women’s golf team had a couple tastes of NCAA success with a pair of NCAA Regional wins under head coach Kalen Anderson, but that year’s squad had high expectations as it aimed to qualify for the NCAA Championships.
 
“We had reached the No.1 national ranking for the first time in program history earlier that fall, and obviously had gained a lot of confidence as a team,” Anderson said when reflecting back on her 2015 team. “We simply carried on throughout the spring with the same mindset and confidence as usual, and the 2015 regional felt no different. We earned the No. 1 seed in the East and were guaranteed the 2015 East Regional site hosted by NC State. I remember Puggy Blackmon, our associate head coach at the time, and I driving the team to Raleigh, NC a few weeks prior to the event for a pre-practice round at Lonnie Poole golf course. It poured rain the entire four hours of the round, but we learned a lot about the golf course and green complexes. Our extra work certainly paid off.”
 
Anderson’s success after taking over the program in 2008 had paid off in her having one of the most talented teams in country with senior Justine Dreher earning First Team All-America honors that year and sophomore Katelyn Dambaugh making the All-America Honorable Mention team. A pair of future All-Americans in Sarah Schmelzel (2016) and Ainhoa Olarra (2017 and 2018) helped round out the team.
 
“It was truly a powerhouse group of talent, but a more impressive group of individuals off the golf course,” Anderson continued. “They brought so much positive energy, grit, and laughs. Each of those four players peaked at very different times, however, they all embodied the culture of our program and brought a high level of leadership. It was almost like each player taught the next as well as served to reinforce one another. We quickly established a culture of hard work, accountability, and excellence that translated into championships. Simply speaking, these players solidified the culture of program that not only led to three straight regional titles, but also the foundation of our program.”
 
Coming off a runner-up finish in the 2014 NCAA Regional, the team knew it had what it took to compete for a regional win, and with the advantage of playing a course so close to home the team departed for Raleigh in hopes of bringing a third NCAA Regional win to the program, and if that was going to happen the Gamecocks needed strong performances from three of those women mentioned above as Dreher, Schmelzel and Dambaugh were penciled into the regional lineup.  
 
Dambaugh had emerged on the scene after a sensational sophomore season where she earned the first of her three consecutive All-America honors. “Freshman year was a good learning experience for me all around,” Dambaugh said. “Coming from a smaller town and small school, USC was an adjustment. I was learning how to time manage properly with school, practicing, and still having time for myself to rest. During freshman year, I started seeing what the golf program was and what it was about. Watching those who were older than me was a key part in how I started to transform as a player and leader. I had a few really good rounds here and there freshman year, but I started to become a little more consistent sophomore year. Watching the veterans on the team practice and see how they worked on certain aspect of their game helped me a lot.”
 
Two of the veterans on the team, senior Justine Dreher and junior Sarah Schmelzel, would play a huge role in getting Carolina back on top in the 2015 NCAA Regional as well. “As a team every year we focused on peaking during postseason,” Schmelzel recalled. “My first two years we kept improving, putting ourselves in positions to win tournaments, and by that 2015 regional we really felt like we belonged and had the tools to win. It was important for us to finally get that win and be able to look back at the process that got us there. It ignited our drive to work even harder to reach our goals as a team.”
 
The Gamecocks stumbled a bit during the first round, finishing the day in sixth place, just seven strokes back from the leader. Dreher led the team on the first day with a 1-under 7, but a slow start would not deter Carolina. Dambaugh looks back on that round as an example of how she grew as a player during her sophomore year. “That course that year did not really fit my eye. For some reason, certain golf courses just feel better for players than others. So, once I became a little more comfortable on the course, my game became a little better as well. This was the year that I started learning to be patient on the course and controlling the controllable things. That is what kept me in that tournament and all the others after.”
 
Carolina flipped the script in the second round, jumping up to first place and cementing its spot at the top with an 8-stroke lead on the second-place team. The catalyst for such a big jump? Schmelzel’s blistering 3-under performance on the day, along with 1-over rounds from Dreher and Dambaugh. “As important as it was for me to play well, I felt it was so much more important to do everything I could to help my teammates,” Schmelzel said of her second-round performance. “That’s the thing I remember most about playing at USC and that first regional win – we all teed it up every tournament and gave our all to the finish for each other.”
 
The Gamecocks finished the job in the third round, winning the 2015 NCAA Regional by eight strokes to earn the third regional win in program history, and the first since 2012. Dreher, part of that 2012 team, helped the Garnet and Black get back to a spot where it could claim the top honors at a regional, and sending the senior off with one more regional win meant a lot to her teammates.
 
“Justine was such a huge part of my college career,” Schmelzel said. “We roomed together at tournaments, did our drills together, and she really pushed me to be the best I could be. If I was ever struggling on the golf course, I knew I couldn’t give up because Justine wasn’t going to give up. She was such a great leader and it was really special for her to go out with a postseason win.”
 
“I learned so much from Justine while she was there,” Dambaugh concluded. “Justine did so much for the Gamecock golf program. She is honestly the reason my wedge game got so much better because I would watch her practice those and how much she practiced them. With how hard she always worked, she deserved to have another victory. She was the ‘mom’ or the backbone of that program in so many ways. It meant so much to the entire team to be a part of that.”
 
The Gamecocks went on to compete in the NCAA National Championship, and though Dreher’s time in Columbia was finished, the next two years had a lot in store for our Gamecocks.