Rutgers sports team caps historic season by winning postseason championship

The Rutgers women’s golf program capped off arguably the greatest season in its history with a championship this weekend.

The Scarlet Knights won the second annual National Golf Invitational — the sport’s equivalent of basketball’s NIT — in Arizona this weekend. The victory marks the first national postseason tournament won by a Rutgers sports program since the women’s basketball team won the 2014 WNIT.

Making their first-ever appearance in any postseason tournament, the Scarlet Knights came out on top of the competition held at the Ak-Chin Southern Dunes Golf Club in Maricopa, finishing three strokes ahead of runner-up UNC Wilmington. The rest of the tournament field consisted of Arkansas State, Austin Peay, Chattanooga, Florida Atlantic, Jacksonville State, Mercer, Santa Clara and USC Upstate.

Rutgers was led by graduate student Leigha Devine, who finished sixth overall in the individual standings after shooting a par-216 through the competition’s three rounds. Freshmen Lorena Rossettin and Emily James were tied for seventh place with a four-over-par 220 over the weekend.

Put together by Golfweek, the National Golf Invitational first took place in 2023, with Penn State winning the inaugural women’s tournament. Rutgers declined an invitation to last spring’s competition because a “nasty strain of the flu left them severely weakened right before the postseason,” head coach Kari Williams told Golfweek.

“They’d been vomiting for 10 days and they were going to miss graduation so we did not accept last year,” Williams said. “I had really wanted to, but we just couldn’t get it done.”

The Scarlet Knights earned their spot in this spring’s edition following their best-ever finish at the Big Ten Championships, where they tied with Illinois for 11th place out of 14 teams at Bulle Rock Golf Course in Havre de Grace, Maryland, last month.

Rutgers capped off that historic finish with the first postseason title in program history.

“What a way for us to finish off a great spring season,” Williams said, according to a press release. “I’m so proud of our seniors getting to cap off their careers with a team win, and for our returners who all played really well for us this weekend. This is a confidence builder for our players individually as they head into summer play, and for our program as a whole as we continue to improve year-over-year. Playing in the postseason is a privilege and we are all thrilled to be bringing back the NGI trophy to New Jersey.”

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Brian Fonseca may be reached at bfonseca@njadvancemedia.com.