Hannah Lydic has dreamed about playing competitive golf since she was 6 years old.

“I’ve been wanting to play competitive rounds forever,” Lydic said. “I was like a racehorse trying to get out of the gate.”

The first-year student from Ocean View, Delaware, came out of the gate strong, breaking the Richmond Spider women’s golf team record for lowest 18-hole score in program history at the William & Mary Fall Invitational.

“All I was thinking during each round was, ‘Trust your training,’ something my parents tell me whenever I go out to play tournament golf,” she said. “As a team we have put in many hours in the gym and on the course. Being able to trust in all our hard work makes competing much easier.”

Lydic went on to place first in the tournament, with the lowest individual tournament score of 205, 11-under par, another Spider record-breaker. The team also set a new team scoring record for a single event, and they’re only just getting started.

“We’re really excited for the season and for the rest of the year,” Lydic said.

Lydic was also named Patriot League Golfer of the Week for her win. This is the third time in Spider history that a first-year has won a tournament, and Lydic is the first player to break the scoring record since 2018.

“We were all able to show up at this tournament and break the team record in our first event of the season,” she said. “It has always been my goal to play collegiate golf, and to be on a team where we can all play at a high level means the world to me.”