W. Golf gains varsity status

Penn becomes the sixth school in the Ivy League to sponsor a women's golf program. On July 26, Penn announced that the women's golf team will begin its first year of varsity competition this fall. The Quakers, who competed unofficially in the Princeton Invitational and Ivy League tournaments last spring, will now be eligible to compete for the league championship. Francis Vaughn, who has coached the men's golf team and the non-varsity women athletes since 1996, will serve as women's golf coach. In 1998, Vaughn led the men to their first league championship in 88 years. Penn becomes the sixth Ivy League school to support a women's golf team. Only Cornell and Columbia are without women's programs. The Quakers' varsity status was made possible by $250,000 donations to the program by both The Judge John C. Pappas Family Charitable Foundation, Inc., and the Thomas Anthony Pappas Family Charitable Foundation. Although the Quakers lost captain Lindsay Stern to graduation, Penn will return senior Natasha Miller, juniors Jen Schraut and Karen Pearlman and sophomore Victoria Entine, while incoming freshman Stacy Kress will be looked upon to solidify the team. "Kress carries a handicap of four at Woodholme Country Club, has extensive tournament experience and will help the other ladies improve just by being around her," Vaughn said in a statement. Unofficially, Penn finished sixth in the Ivy Championship tournament at Bethpage Golf Club in Long Island, N.Y. -- 135 strokes behind fifth-place Harvard. Schraut was the top Quakers finisher with a 36-hole total of 200. Meanwhile, Entine shot a 214, Stern a 216 and Pearlman a 272. Penn is the first Ivy League school to add a women's golf program since the inauguration of the women's Ivy Championship in 1997. And now the Quakers will have a trophy to play for, as Arthur Brennan, a Wharton alumnus, and his wife Katharine donated the Arthur A. Brennan Jr. Family Trophy for the Women's Ivy League Championship.

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