Nov. 21, 2012

The USC women's golf team, on the heels of three top 3 results in the fall season, including a victory in its final event, finished the fall season ranked No. 1 in the Golf World/WGCA women's coaches' poll that came out Wednesday (Nov. 21).

The Trojans, under 17th-year head coach Andrea Gaston and featuring a pair of returning All-Americans in junior Sophia Popov and sophomore Doris Chen, are after the program's third national title after finishing second at last year's NCAA Championships by a mere stroke.

The 2013-12 Trojans, which said goodbye to All-American senior Lisa McCloskey and long contributing senior Inah Park, have been bolstered by the strong play of freshman Kyung Kim, who led USC to a team win in the final event by claiming first herself.

USC opened the season with a third in the Cougar Classic before tying for third at the Liz Murphey Fall Preview. The Trojans posted a four-stroke win at the Stanford Intercollegiate with the help of Kim's three-stroke individual win at 7-under 206 while Chen tied for third at 1-under 212.

Popov finished with three top 17 finishes in the fall while Chen had three in the top 16.

Troy will be further strengthened in the spring by the addition of incoming freshman Annie Park, a prep All-American who played as an amateur at the 2012 U.S. Open.

USC got 18 out of a possible 24 first-place votes in the poll. Washington got three, Oklahoma got two and Duke got one.