AIKEN, S.C. – No. 4 South Carolina finished runner-up at the 2025 Old Barnwell Derby Matchplay on Tuesday. The Gamecocks fell, 3-2, to No. 9 Wake Forest in a tightly contested title match that came down to the wire.

Freshman Eila Galitsky went 3-0 in her matches at Old Barnwell over the last two days putting the first point on the board for Carolina with a 4&3 victory over Wake’s Macy Pate. Sophomore Maylis Lamoure also went 3-0 in her matches this week putting the second point on the board today for the Gamecocks today with a birdie on 18 to win 1-up.

Senior All-Americans Louise Rydqvist and Hannah Darling dropped close matches that ended on hole 17 so it came down to the anchor match between sophomore Vairana Heck and Wake’s Sky Sload. Heck made eagle on 16 to pull within 1-shot but Sload won the match for the Demon Deacons 2&1 with a par at 17.

Carolina picked up a pair of top-25 wins this week with impressive 4-1 victories over No. 22 Duke in the quarterfinals and No. 12 Virginia in the semifinals on Monday.

Darling, Galitsky and Rydqvist will all compete in the upcoming Augusta National Women’s Amateur April 2-5.

The team will be back in action at the SEC Championship April 14-18. Pelican Golf Club in Belair, Fla. will host the conference tournament for the second straight year. Teams will play 54-holes Monday thru Wednesday with the top eight teams advancing to match play on Thursday. The title match will take place Friday, April 18, and air live on SEC Network.

2025 Old Barnwell Derby Matchplay Championship Match

Maylis Lamoure (SC) def. Chloe Kovelesky (WF), 1-up

Carolina Chacarra (WF) def. Louise Rydqvist (SC), 2&1

Eila Galitsky (SC) def. Macy Pate (WF), 4&3

Anne-Sterre den Dunnen (WF) def. Hannah Darling (SC), 2&1

Sky Sload (WF) def. Vairana Heck (SC), 2&1

FINAL: No. 9 Wake Forest def. No. 4 South Carolina, 3-2

2025 Old Barnwell Derby Matchplay Semifinal Match

J. LaHa (Virginia) def. Hannah Darling (SC), 1-up

Eila Galitsky (SC) def. R. Skoler (Virginia), 3&2

Maylis Lamoure (SC) def. M. Propeck (Virginia), 3&2

Vairana Heck (SC) def. A. Sambach (Virginia), 2&1

Sophia Burnett (SC) def. C. Schiavone (Virginia), 2-up

FINAL: No. 4 South Carolina def. No. 12 Virgina, 4-1

2025 Old Barnwell Derby Matchplay Quarterfinal Match

Maylis Lamoure (SC) def. C. De Troia (Duke), 4&3

Eila Galitsky (SC) def. A. Smith (Duke), 1-up

K. Li (Duke) def. Sophia Burnett (SC), 3-up

Hannah Darling (SC) def. R. Heflin (Duke), 5&4

Louise Rydqvist (SC) def. A. Canado Espinal (Duke), 5&4

FINAL: No. 4 South Carolina def. No. 22 Duke, 4-1

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The South Carolina Children’s Fund and Old Barnwell Golf Club announced a $30,000 donation March 24 to fund 40 classroom projects proposed by Aiken-area teachers through DonorsChoose, an education nonprofit.

Representatives from DonorsChoose, South Carolina Children’s Fund and Old Barnwell were at Barnwell Primary School and Midland Valley High School to visit teachers shortly after they learned via email that their projects had been funded.

“Seriously, from the bottom of my heart, this is amazing because it makes such a difference to the kids and the teachers and our school,” said Corey Lenon, who teaches culinary arts at Midland Valley, after the group entered her classroom.

Lenon said six culinary arts projects were funded for a total of $2,721. The money will pay for cooking utensils, cookie cutters, classroom supplies and chef’s jackets for the students to wear during culinary competitions.

Lenon said her program has received $44,000 during the past seven years through DonorsChoose and that she mentors other teachers who are seeking funding by posting their projects on the DonorsChoose website.

“You know I’m the queen of this,” she told the visitors. “I’m your ambassador. I promote this again and again and again.”

Midland Valley High received $8,389 for 17 projects in the latest round of funding, bringing their total to more than $40,000 during the past two years, Lenon said.

South Carolina Children’s Fund and Old Barnwell Golf Club each provided $15,000 to DonorsChoose to pay for the awards, said Christopher Ruszkowski, CEO of South Carolina Children’s Fund.

He said 60% of the projects funded are in Aiken County, 25% in Barnwell County and the remaining 15% are in Bamberg and Saluda counties.

“This is our first investment in the CSRA, and I think that was a big driver of it,” Ruszkowski said, adding that this is the first time the year-old organization has contributed directly to teachers. Previous contributions had been to school districts, charter schools or organizations.

He said the South Carolina Children’s Fund has invested about $500,000 in 11 projects thus far, seeking to catalyze educational support and improvement.

He said he sought Old Barnwell’s involvement because of the private club’s philanthropic community focus.

“Because we already believe that the civic and business and philanthropic community should be engaging more — that’s one of our central premises — this partnership made sense for us,” Ruszkowski said.

“We pride ourselves on what we can do for the community, and we wanted participate,” said Joe Stoehner, caddy mentor at Old Barnwell, while visiting Midland Valley High.

Jessica Thorne, vice president for government partnerships at DonorsChoose, was there also.

“We’re just thrilled to be a part of this. We’re so grateful for the community coming together to support local education, and to see the power of teachers doing amazing things for their kids and being able to have the resources,” Thorne said.

“Our organization is celebrating our 25th anniversary. We have funded 3 million projects like this and $1.7 billion has been supplied in the last 25 years. Ninety percent of public schools have been touched by DonorsChoose projects,” she said.

Ruth Morris, school nurse at Midland Valley High, said she has submitted about a dozen proposals to DonorsChoose in the last few years, receiving first aid supplies and an ice machine for her clinic.

The latest awards total more than $1,200, providing supplies for the nurse's office, bandages and tissues for every classroom, and Automatic External Defibrillator trainers to be used physical education classes during CPR training.

“It’s been a blessing. Because my little nurse budget would not get me any of this. I take care of so many kids with diabetes, seizures, all kinds of things,” Morris said.

“I’m blessed to be a school nurse and have the ability to serve my students and staff members, and these DonorsChoose projects will go a long way toward making what I do successful.”