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No. 10 Spartan Women's Golf Ready For Tar Heel Invitational
Oct. 8, 2009
Listen to Spartan Sports Podcasts: Additional Links: EAST LANSING, Mich. - The No. 10 Michigan State women's golf team will face a challenging field this weekend (Oct. 9-11) at the Tar Heel Invitational in Chapel Hill, N.C. Nine of the 18 teams enter the tournament ranked in the top 25 of the latest Golfweek/Sagarin rankings, and 14 are listed in the top 50. The 34th annual Tar Heel Invitational will be played at the par 72, 6,285-yard UNC Finley Golf Course. Tee times begin at 9 a.m. Friday and Saturday with teams starting off both the No. 1 and No. 10 tees. There will be a shotgun start at 9:15 a.m. on Sunday. In addition to Michigan State, the field includes: No. 2 Auburn, No. 12 Alabama, No. 13 Duke, No. 19 Texas A&M, No. 20 Florida State, No. 21 Virginia, No. 22 Louisville, No. 25 South Carolina, No. 28 Kent State, No. 30 Wake Forest, No. 33 North Carolina, No. 35 Tennessee, No. 36 Vanderbilt, Denver, East Carolina, North Carolina State and UNC-Wilmington. "We're going to be tested this week against some of the top teams in the country," said MSU women's golf head coach Stacy Slobodnik-Stoll. "We're really looking forward to that. It's a wonderful golf course and a great place. We did a lot of practice this week on the edges of our Fox Putting Green because that's what we saw there last year, a lot of pins out on the corners. We feel ready and we're excited to compete." The Spartans tied for second place in their last outing at the Lady Northern Invitational in Madison, Wis., on Sept. 27-28. MSU showed its potential in the second round of the Lady Northern by shooting a team-record 280. Four players shot under-par for the Spartans, including Aimee Neff, who tied a program-record low score with a 68.
In the first event of the season, MSU won its home tournament, the Mary Fossum Invitational, for the fifth consecutive year. "This tournament allows us to test ourselves and see where we stand up," Slobodnik-Stoll said. "This year we feel like we're capable of finishing in the top 10 in the nation. We have to play against those teams to prove that. It makes you a better competitor playing against the best teams out there." Laura Kueny and Lindsey Solberg are MSU's highest ranked golfers (No. 46) entering the tournament; both own a 73.00 scoring average through six rounds. Kueny has two top-10 finishes this season, taking ninth at the Fossum and tying for fifth at the Lady Northern. Playing as an individual, Solberg tied for third at the Fossum before placing 11th in Wisconsin. Neff, coming off a solid summer season in which she won the Indiana and Illinois Opens, is continuing her success this fall. Following her record-round of 68 at the Lady Northern, she finished tied for seventh at the tournament with a three-round total of 220. Neff is third on the team with a 73.33 average and is ranked 60th in the nation. Freshman Caroline Powers is also ranked in the top 100, at No. 75, with a 73.67 average. Playing in her first collegiate tournaments, Powers tied for 14th at the Fossum and tied for fifth at the Lady Northern. Sophomore Shannon Warner, who tied for third at the Fossum Invitational, rounds out the lineup for the Spartans this weekend. Live scoring of the Tar Heel Invitational will be available at www.golfstat.com. |
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