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34 CAVALIER CORNER cavalier profile AMANDA SAMBACH Second-Year • Golf Almost all collegiate sports have a player of the year award and women's golf is no different. The ANNIKA Award is the hardware presented annually to the nation's top female collegiate golfer. Its namesake is Hall of Fame golfer Annika Sorenstam who most know from her standout career on the LPGA Tour. There, she won 89 professional events and 10 major titles during her 15 years as a professional. While Sorenstam's name is recog- nized by even casual sports fans, she is lesser known as a collegiate standout. Sorenstam played at Arizona in the early 1990s and won seven collegiate titles. She was the first foreign-born player and first fresh- man to win the individual NCAA championship. She also won the 1991 National Co-Player of the Year Award, was the 1992 Pac-10 champion and was named to the 1991-92 All-America team. Being named one of 25 players on the ANNIKA Award's watch list this fall was a huge honor for UVA second-year Amanda Sambach. Opening the season playing in the tournament named for Sorenstam — The ANNIKA Intercollegiate — was another thrill. Winning that event and being presented the medalist trophy by Sorenstam was truly special. "It was pretty unreal," Sambach said. "Even just competing in a tournament with her name on it is such an honor, but to come off the 18th green and have her come up to me and congratulate me was surreal, considering how much she has done for women's golf. She is someone I have looked up to for a while." Since she enrolled at Virginia in the fall of 2020, Sambach has been a regular in the Cavaliers' lineup and played a big part in the team being a consistent presence in the top 10 of the collegiate golf polls the past two years. As a first-year, she earned honorable mention All-America honors to go along with being an All-ACC selection. She set a UVA first-year scoring record with her 72.85 stroke average for 18 holes and ended the year with a 31st-place finish at the NCAA Championships. This fall Sambach posted a stroke average of 71.33 in four tour- nament appearances. She tied the UVA single-round scoring record by shooting a 7-under 65 to open the ANNIKA tournament and had a career-best 9-under 207 at that tournament. Sambach's goals for the spring are what you would expect from a rising star in the collegiate golf world. After coming close this fall, she wants to see her team finish first at a tournament and to help lead UVA back to the NCAA Championships, where the Hoos were 15th last spring. On a personal level, she has her sights set on a top-10 finish in the individual competition. All those things will certainly keep her on track as a strong candi- date for the ANNIKA Award and another possible meeting with one of the all-time greats to play the game. — Jim Daves • Photo courtesy UVA