Central Michigan University Athletics
Tuesday, March 24
Raleigh, NC (Lonnie Poole GC)
8:30 a.m. / 18 holes
Central Michigan University
at
City of Oaks Collegiate
CMU junior Lexi Schulman posted a 1-over 73, moving from a tie for 53rd place into a tie for 22nd, on Tuesday during the final round of the City of Oaks Collegiate in Raleigh, N.C.
Photo by: Mogie Adamchik
Schulman Equals Career Best in Leading Women's Golf in Final Round in Raleigh, N.C.
3/24/2026 8:27:00 PM | Women's Golf
RALEIGH, N.C. – Lexi Schulman tied a career best on Tuesday in leading the Central Michigan women's golf team during the final round of the City of Oaks Collegiate at Lonnie Poole Golf Course.
Schulman, a junior from Vernon Hills, Ill., shot a 1-over par 73, equaling her career best relation-to-par score, a 1-over 72 she posted in the Bowling Green State Women's Intercollegiate in February.
She began the day tied for 53rd and finished tied for 22nd with a 231 total. Her 31-place improvement was far and away the best in the entire 73-player field.
"She had a little bit of a breakthrough today, which is great," CMU coach Ryan Williams said of Schulman. "She should take a ton of confidence away from it.
"We've been kind of waiting for this to come. She's put some good rounds together, played pretty solid this spring after struggling a bit during the fall semester and it's exciting to see her have a good round. That was a really good round today in tough conditions. The feel-like temperatures were in the 30s when we teed off and it was windy. The average score was the highest of all three rounds by a couple shots.
"She played steady golf, and it looked really natural and that's what we like to see. I'm excited to see how that continues to give her confidence and see how she plays the rest of the year."
The Chippewas' Ella Zanatta, who started the day tied for third place, shot a final-round 12-over 84 on Tuesday to finish tied for 16th with a 230 total.
Zanatta, who shot a program-record-tying 4-under 68 in Monday's second round, got off to a rough start on Tuesday, making two double bogeys and two bogeys in her first five holes. She then made her only birdie of the day and then carded no worse than a bogey the rest of the way.
"I think it was more the conditions," Williams said. "She fought to get it back on the rails multiple times and she kept a good attitude, she grinded hard, but a couple swings cost her some shots. She was just fighting.
"It's not an easy golf course, which shows how special of a round (Monday) was. And when the wind's blowing and when it's cold like that, the ball is not flying that far and it's bouncing all over the place. It's a lot more unpredictable and it's a lot more difficult to manage yourself around the golf course. It was not for lack of an effort, and it wasn't nerves. She's been in that situation before."
Also for the Chippewas on Tuesday, Zoe Dull shot 79, Brooke Morris posted an 81, and Rachel Niskanen shot 85.
Niskanen finished with a 235 total and in a tie for 42nd, Dull finished at 236 and in a tie for 48th, and Morris finished 70th at 245.
Dull was steady throughout the three-day event with a pair of 79s sandwiched around a 78. Not spectacular, Williams said, but solid and a good steppingstone on a tough golf course in a strong field for the freshman from Spring Lake.
"None of the days was she very happy with the way she played, but she shot three rounds in the 70s and she counted every round for us," he said. "She wasn't satisfied with the way she played, but she did what we needed her to do and that's great.
"She knows that she can clean up some of those mistakes and she can learn from what she did this week and continue to get better and I think that that's a really good sign."
CMU posted a 317 team score on Tuesday for a 928 total, which landed it in ninth place in the 13-team field. The Chippewas finished two shots behind eighth-place Oral Roberts and four back of seventh-place Georgetown.
The 317 was CMU's highest round of the tournament, but that was the case for all but one of the 13 teams in the field on Tuesday.
"Overall, as a team, I think it was a pretty solid performance," Williams said. "It's a really good field and we beat some teams that are ranked significantly ahead of us.
"A season is a process, and you'd like to see growth and you'd like to see learning and progress. And I do think that this tournament was that for us.
"Obviously, there's some disappointment at the end of each of these days because we could have done a little bit more, but I think the rounds we put together on that golf course show that we're getting better. We're learning and we're growing and we're pulling it together and hopefully it continues to go that way down the stretch. We have a month left in our season before the MAC Championship."
Host North Carolina State, which is ranked 44th nationally, closed with a 306 for an 888 total and a 13-shot victory over runner-up Rutgers.
Marie Madsen of N.C. State posted an even-par 72 on Tuesday to finish with a 2-under 214 and a six-shot victory over runner-up Emily James of Rutgers, who closed with a 4-over 76.
Schulman, a junior from Vernon Hills, Ill., shot a 1-over par 73, equaling her career best relation-to-par score, a 1-over 72 she posted in the Bowling Green State Women's Intercollegiate in February.
She began the day tied for 53rd and finished tied for 22nd with a 231 total. Her 31-place improvement was far and away the best in the entire 73-player field.
"She had a little bit of a breakthrough today, which is great," CMU coach Ryan Williams said of Schulman. "She should take a ton of confidence away from it.
"We've been kind of waiting for this to come. She's put some good rounds together, played pretty solid this spring after struggling a bit during the fall semester and it's exciting to see her have a good round. That was a really good round today in tough conditions. The feel-like temperatures were in the 30s when we teed off and it was windy. The average score was the highest of all three rounds by a couple shots.
"She played steady golf, and it looked really natural and that's what we like to see. I'm excited to see how that continues to give her confidence and see how she plays the rest of the year."
The Chippewas' Ella Zanatta, who started the day tied for third place, shot a final-round 12-over 84 on Tuesday to finish tied for 16th with a 230 total.
Zanatta, who shot a program-record-tying 4-under 68 in Monday's second round, got off to a rough start on Tuesday, making two double bogeys and two bogeys in her first five holes. She then made her only birdie of the day and then carded no worse than a bogey the rest of the way.
"I think it was more the conditions," Williams said. "She fought to get it back on the rails multiple times and she kept a good attitude, she grinded hard, but a couple swings cost her some shots. She was just fighting.
"It's not an easy golf course, which shows how special of a round (Monday) was. And when the wind's blowing and when it's cold like that, the ball is not flying that far and it's bouncing all over the place. It's a lot more unpredictable and it's a lot more difficult to manage yourself around the golf course. It was not for lack of an effort, and it wasn't nerves. She's been in that situation before."
Also for the Chippewas on Tuesday, Zoe Dull shot 79, Brooke Morris posted an 81, and Rachel Niskanen shot 85.
Niskanen finished with a 235 total and in a tie for 42nd, Dull finished at 236 and in a tie for 48th, and Morris finished 70th at 245.
Dull was steady throughout the three-day event with a pair of 79s sandwiched around a 78. Not spectacular, Williams said, but solid and a good steppingstone on a tough golf course in a strong field for the freshman from Spring Lake.
"None of the days was she very happy with the way she played, but she shot three rounds in the 70s and she counted every round for us," he said. "She wasn't satisfied with the way she played, but she did what we needed her to do and that's great.
"She knows that she can clean up some of those mistakes and she can learn from what she did this week and continue to get better and I think that that's a really good sign."
CMU posted a 317 team score on Tuesday for a 928 total, which landed it in ninth place in the 13-team field. The Chippewas finished two shots behind eighth-place Oral Roberts and four back of seventh-place Georgetown.
The 317 was CMU's highest round of the tournament, but that was the case for all but one of the 13 teams in the field on Tuesday.
"Overall, as a team, I think it was a pretty solid performance," Williams said. "It's a really good field and we beat some teams that are ranked significantly ahead of us.
"A season is a process, and you'd like to see growth and you'd like to see learning and progress. And I do think that this tournament was that for us.
"Obviously, there's some disappointment at the end of each of these days because we could have done a little bit more, but I think the rounds we put together on that golf course show that we're getting better. We're learning and we're growing and we're pulling it together and hopefully it continues to go that way down the stretch. We have a month left in our season before the MAC Championship."
Host North Carolina State, which is ranked 44th nationally, closed with a 306 for an 888 total and a 13-shot victory over runner-up Rutgers.
Marie Madsen of N.C. State posted an even-par 72 on Tuesday to finish with a 2-under 214 and a six-shot victory over runner-up Emily James of Rutgers, who closed with a 4-over 76.
Players Mentioned
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