Roland the medalist in U.S. Women's Mid-Amateur qualifier at Concord

   Alyssa Roland was a nice junior player growing up in Newtown Square and at Overbrook Golf Club. She was good enough at Yale to win an Ivy League individual title as a junior in 2009.

   She’s got a job in New York City these days that keeps her pretty busy, but it hasn’t prevented her from keeping her game sharp enough to compete as a mid-amateur.

   The 28-year-old gets away from the Big Apple on weekends to work on her game at Overbrook when she can. She’ll need a little time off in October after capturing medalist honors in a U.S. Women’s Mid-Amateur Championship qualifier administered by the Golf Association of Philadelphia with a 1-over-par 74 at Concord Country Club last week.

   The U.S. Women’s Mid-Amateur will tee off Oct. 7 at Quail Creek Country Club in Naples, Fla.

   “I don’t really have time to practice in the city, it’s tough there,” Roland told the GAP website. “But when I turned 25, I wanted to play in the Mid-Am.  It’s a great tournament with some good competition, so that’s why I picked the game back up.”

   Roland made three birdies in a five-hole stretch over the 5,947-yard, par-73 Concord layout to fuel her run to medalist honors.

   She hit a 6-iron to two feet at the 156-yard, par-3 eighth hole and made that putt. At the par-4 10^th hole, her 8-iron approach finished 10 feet from the hole and she converted that birdie look. She nearly reached the par-5 12^th hole in with a hybrid and two-putted for a birdie.

   Roland will be competing in her fifth USGA event, having qualified for the U.S. Mid-Am in 2013 and 2014 and for the first two editions of the U.S. Women’s Amateur Four-Ball in 2015 and 2016.

   Catherine Elliott, a junior golf and Ivy League rival of Roland’s, also earned a ticket to Quail Creek as she was the runnerup with a 3-over 76. Elliott was a standout at perennial Inter-Ac League power Notre Dame and helped Penn capture the 2010 Ivy League title and earn a trip to the NCAA Stanford Regional as a senior.

   Playing at Merion Golf Club these days, Elliott fell in the final of the Women’s Golf Association of Philadelphia’s Match-Play Championship to Penn State junior Cara Basso last month at Spring-Ford Country Club. Elliott also played on Merion’s top entry in the WGAP’s Inter-Club Matches, which captured its record 69^th Philadelphia Cup title last spring.

   “Alyssa and I played a ton of golf together and against each other,” Elliott told the GAP website. “She’s a great player and just a really nice person.”

   Four more players punched their tickets to Quail Creek at Concord. Wilmington Country Club’s Meghan Perry and Eleana Collins of Baltimore shared third place at 4-over 77, Fieldstone Golf Club’s Emma Sills was fifth with a 78 and Carol Davis of Garret Park, Md. earned the final berth in the U.S. Women’s Mid-Am with a 79.