The Illinois State womens golf team fired a second round 317 and has a two round total of 628, to remain atop the leaderboard heading into the third and final round of the 2004 Missouri Valley Conference Womens Golf Championship at Hickory Ridge Golf Course in Carbondale, Ill. The Redbirds hold a one-stroke lead over UNI (629).
Once again, all Redbird golfers are in the top 20 individually. Standout Samantha Richdale leads the way and is in second place overall at 152 (77,75), just one stroke behind current leader Kelly Gerlach of Southern Illinois. Chelsea Bach (77,82) and Katie Laehn (78,81) are both tied for ninth at 159. Albiona Zhubi is tied for 14th posting a 160 (79,81) and Hilary Anderson is just one-stroke behind with a 161 (81,80) and tied for 17th. Ashlie Rose rounds out Illinois State scoring with a 163 (81,82) and sits in 20th.
Head coach
Ray Kralis hoped for some lower scores, but is happy his team is still in the lead.
Today certainly did not go how we would have liked, Kralis said. We struggled just a little bit and unfortunately we had to count an 80 and some 81s, which hurt our totals.
Northern Iowa posted the lowest 18-hole score of the tournament thus far with a 304 to grab second place at 629 (325,304). The host Salukis are in third at 631 (320,311) followed by Bradley, Wichita State, SMS, Creighton and Evansville. Kralis is still optimistic heading into the final round of play and believes his team will prove it is the best.
I love our chances tomorrow and it will make for an exciting day of golf, Kralis said. Samantha is in a familiar spot and Im looking for everyone to step up. Weve got a great feel for this course and weve discussed strategy for tomorrow and believe that it will be our day. I believe we are the best team here and I feel we will prove that tomorrow.
The third and final round of the 2004 Valley Championship will begin at 8:00 a.m. on Tuesday. Round three pairings, along with live scoring and results, can be found at www.Golfstatresults.com
