March 23, 2007
NORMAL, Ill. -
The Illinois State women's golf team will be traveling to Carbondale, Ill. to compete in the Saluki Invitational hosted by Southern Illinois, March 25-26 at Hickory Ridge Golf Course.
The field of competition for the Redbirds will be split equally between Missouri Valley Conference and non-conference teams. Participating Valley teams include Bradley, Creighton, Drake, Evansville, Indiana State and Northern Iowa. Other participants include Austin Peay, Eastern Illinois, Eastern Michigan, Murray State, Rend Lake and Western Illinois.
Head coach Ray Kralis is looking forward to the competition.
"It takes the competitiveness to a different level because we have history with those teams," said Kralis. "At the same time there are some schools outside the conference like Eastern Michigan that has been playing well and Murray State that has had success at this tournament in the past."
Competing in the lineup for the `Birds will be senior Hilary Anderson, sophomores Marci Hill and Tiffany Hockensmith, and freshmen Laura Harris, Britt Knutson and Stacey Miller. Senior Olivia Campos and freshman Christine Larson will also be traveling with the team to compete individually.
"We are coming off a lot of positives from our first two tournaments," said Kralis. "Scoring wise we are going in the right direction, and we have certainly have had a number of individual players who have put up low rounds. From a lineup standpoint I think we have our strongest lineup of the season going into this tournament."
As the spring season progresses towards the Valley championship each tournament offers valuable experience and growth opportunities.
"This is a golf course where one mistake can lead to two or three shots," said Kralis. "After making a mistake the next shot doesn't get any easier, so I will be interested to see how we navigate certain structures of the golf course. The more experience we have on tough golf courses, not only coming through and playing the shots but also dealing with any adversity, the more prepared we will be for WeaverRidge."
The tournament will begin with a 10 a.m. shotgun start on Sunday, where the teams will compete in the first 18 holes.
