INDIANAPOLIS – Malone junior Melanie Smith was designated as the Great Midwest Athletic Conference Women’s Golf Athlete of the Month with an impressive display in October.
 
Smith has put together a streak of four consecutive top-10 finishes as the Pioneers won a pair of team titles in back-to-back fashion in a successful fall season.
 
Smith and the Pioneers competed at the Ohio Valley Fall Classic where she tied for sixth and was named to the all-tournament team. At the end of day one, Smith finished with an 88, and then came back on day two and slashed off eight strokes to finish the event with an 81.
 
Malone also competed at the Rossin Memorial Invitational that was hosted by Washington & Jefferson. This time, Smith finished the invitational with a third-place finish of 181. In round one she earned a score of 90,and completed round two with 91.
 
Smith continued her top-10 trend and earned a third-place finish at the Woodridge Open, a one-round event hosted by Ohio Valley that Malone was able to win. She finished with a score of 82.
 
The Pioneers’ last event of the fall was the Phipps Memorial. Smith had her best finish of the fall with a second-place effort and a score of 80.
 
Smith has the best scoring average on the team at 86.33 and that also puts her in the top 10 scoring averages for the G-MAC. In the six events she has competed in, Smith has finished in the top 10 in five of them, which allows her to lead the G-MAC in top 10 finishes heading into the spring.