GREENVILLE, S.C. -- For the second-straight year, Furman women's golfer Audrey Ryu has been voted the Southern Conference Female Athlete of the Year, the league announced today.

Ryu is the seventh-consecutive Paladin to win female athlete of the year honors — the longest streak by any school in SoCon history — and the fifth-straight Furman women's golfer to claim the accolade.  The Paladin women's golf team has won six out of the last seven SoCon Female Athlete of the Year citations, and Furman has captured the award a record 14 times since its inception in 1989-90.

"We are very proud of Audrey for being named the SoCon Female Athlete of the Year for the second time," said Furman head women's golf coach Jeff Hull.  "She really took ownership of leading the team to the SoCon Championship and made it a priority individually.  To achieve this honor while being such a great student is truly remarkable."

A junior from Dublin, Ohio, Ryu earned her second-consecutive Furman athlete of the year honor after repeating as SoCon individual medalist and leading the Paladins to their second-consecutive league title.  The 2026 SoCon Women's Golfer of the Year, she was the highest ranked player in the league and led the Paladins with a 72.73 stroke average over 33 rounds.  Ryu earned her third-straight all-conference scroll and appeared at the NCAA regionals for the third-straight year.  

Ryu, who ranks third in Paladin history behind only former SoCon Female Athletes of the Year Anna Morgan and Natalie Srinivasan with a 72.86 career stroke average over 101 rounds, holds the SoCon tournament low-round record of 66.  She earned three SoCon Player of the Week awards this year and has eight career league player of the week scrolls.  She recorded six top-11 finishes in 11 events during the 2025-26 season, including a sixth-place finish at the Valspar Augusta Invitational and a seventh-place finish at the Cougar Classic and led Furman to five top-5 team finishes during her junior campaign.  

A concert pianist and a biology major with a 3.96 GPA, Ryu, who published computational chemistry research at Furman, previously worked under Prisma Hospital's Institute of Translational Oncology Research and is currently working with Prisma Health on cancer pathology clinical research.  She was selected to the CSC Academic All-District Team, WGCA All-America Scholar Team, SoCon Academic All-Conference Team, SoCon Academic Honor Roll, and Furman Dean's List.  

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