2013 GLVC Women's Golf Championship Central | Round 1 Tee Times
WATERLOO, Ill. – The University of Indianapolis is set to begin its title defense as the 2013 Great Lakes Valley Conference Women’s Golf Championship tees off Saturday, April 27, at Annbriar Golf Course in Waterloo, Ill. The 15th annual 36-hole event, which will conclude on Sunday, will be conducted for the fourth straight year at Annbriar, which will be played at 5,882 yards at a par of 72.
Annbriar is the seventh different course to have hosted the GLVC Championships and just the third course to have hosted in multiple years.
Indianapolis (6), Drury (2), Lewis (1), and Southern Indiana (1), along with former GLVC members Northern Kentucky (3) and SIU Edwardsville (1), have each won the GLVC Championship in years past.
Last season, UIndy erased a seven-stroke deficit and recorded a program-record-tying team score of 296 in the final round to claim its conference-best sixth title. The Greyhounds' 36-hole score of 605 was five strokes better than runner-up Drury (610), while Missouri-St. Louis finished another five strokes back of the Panthers for third.
UIndy has spent most of the spring season competing in Division I-heavy fields, including a win at the IPFW Spring Classic on April 1 and a runner-up finish at the Bowling Green Falcon Invite on April 14. At IPFW, the Greyhounds (308-308—616) bested the otherwise all Division I field by eight strokes and were led by co-medalists Jenny Konop and Regan Pittard. At Bowling Green, a different pair of Greyhounds turned in top-five results as Chanice Young and Jaclyn Schindler tied for third and fifth, respectively.
Drury, which has garnered the No. 2 seed in the GLVC Championship, last competed on April 15 when it finished fourth (328-324—652) in the UMSL Triton Invitational. The Lady Panthers were paced by freshman Ellen Mitchell, who tied for fifth with a 36-hole score of 158 (83-75). Drury will be looking for its second straight GLVC medalist crown as Katrina Choate fired a 1-under-par 143 (71-72) last year as a senior to tie the GLVC 36-hole winning score record, set by Drury’s Tonya Choate (no relation) in 2006 and Lewis’ Reeta Laakkonen in 2000.
UMSL, which placed one spot ahead of Drury and was the best of nine other conference squads at its Triton Invitational two weeks ago, will play alongside the Greyhounds and Lady Panthers as the No. 3 seed. Outside of a ninth-place result in its season opener at the Smoky Mountain Intercollegiate in September, the Tritons have yet to place outside the top five in eight events this season. They posted a win in the 11-team Maryville Subway Invitational on April 8 with a season-best score of 608 (300-308). Freshman Tayler Hoag came into form this spring, having paced the Tritons in each of their five events during the second semester.
The top-five finishers at the GLVC Women's Golf Championship are named All-GLVC and the top finishing individual earns medalist honors. The remaining golf awards are determined by season results.
Three of last year’s top-five finishers at the conference meet are in the field again as UMSL’s Daniela Viotti (74-76—150) finished fourth, while teammate Shweta Galande (76-75—151) tied for fifth with Lewis’ Vanessa Phillips (73-78-151). UIndy’s Konop, who finished tied for seventh last year at 151 (79-73), is currently ranked as the third-best scorer in Division II’s Region E, while Galande is sixth.
There is no automatic qualifying bid to the NCAA Championships in women’s golf, so a number of GLVC squads will be jockeying for position in the regional rankings. Only nine teams will qualify for the 2013 DII East Regional, held at Joliet Country Club in Joliet, Ill., May 5-7. From there, the top-three teams and top-three student-athletes not with a qualifying team will move on to the NCAA Championships in Daytona Beach, Fla., May 15-18.
Indianapolis currently sits atop the latest NCAA East Regional rankings, released by the NCAA on April 25, while Missouri-St. Louis is sixth, Drury is eighth, Southern Indiana is ninth, and Lewis is 11th.
Admission to the 2013 GLVC Women's Golf Championship is free to the public.
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