Record Four Women Spartans Earn All-Conference Honors
Four members of the Michigan State women’s golf team earned All-Big Ten, including sophomore Valery Plata named Big Ten Golfer of the Year.
Plata – who also won the Sportsmanship award – was joined on the All-Big Ten First Team by senior Allyson Geer-Park and junior Yurika Tanida. Senior Paz Marfa Sans was selected to the second team.
“It’s a very exciting day for us to have four players earn All-Big Ten honors and for Valery to be named Player of the Year,” MSU head coach Stacy Slobodnik-Stoll said. “Valery is an amazing young woman and had a breakout year. She finished in the top 20 of all but one tournament and winning the Tar Heel Invitational in the fall was an outstanding accomplishment.”
The four All-Big Ten selections are the most ever for the Spartan program. Plata, who hails from Floridablanca, Colombia, is the sixth Big Ten Golfer of the Year from MSU overall and marks the 3rd time in the last 4 seasons a Spartan has garnered the conference honor (2018, 2017 – Sarah Burnham).
Plata led the Spartans with a 72.37 scoring average. At the Tar Heel, Plata recorded the second-lowest 54-hole tournament total in school history with an 11-under-par 205 (69, 68, 68). She and the Spartans outdueled a field that included No. 2-ranked Wake Forest, 2019 national champion Duke and No. 9-ranked Arkansas, and a total of seven teams in the top 20.
Geer-Park ended her career with Michigan State and turned pro as the all-time leader in career scoring average at 72.87. The native of Brighton is the first player in program history to be a four-time First Team All-Big Ten honoree. Tanida had the best year of her career as her 72.84 scoring average was nearly a stroke and a half lower than her sophomore year average. Marfa Sans is now a three-time All-Big Ten selection. Her 72.94 scoring average in 2019-20 was the second-lowest of her career.
