Southland Tournament tees off Monday
4/15/2012 9:40:00 AM | Women's Golf
The Bearkats finished fifth in last year's championships. Sam Houston State won the Southland women's title in 2004 and 2007 and were runners-up in 2002, 2008 and 2010.
Junior Shelby Hardy and senior Meghan Musk are the Bearkats' top two hopes for individual honors. Musk placed fifth in last year's Southland tournament while Hardy was the runner-up as a freshman in 2010.
Hardyis sixth in the conference with a 75.75 scoring average and has two individual titles in 10 tournaments this season.
UTSA returns all five golfers from last year's championship team to earn the role of favorites in this year's event. Of the five golfers returning for UTSA, four placed in the top five in last year's event, including sophomore Fabiola Arriaga, who tied for the tournament's low-score (223) but fell in the third hole of a playoff for the individual title.
Texas State will look to become the first team to claim four Southland championships and its third in five years. Leading the conference in stroke average with a 74.22 is Bobcat junior Krista Puisite.
Lamar finished second in last year's championship and hopes to claim its fourth tournament title and its first since 2006. Lamar is led by junior Julie Aime, who finished tied for 10th in last year's event.
Other notable returning golfers include Texas A&M-Corpus Christi senior Ryann White and Central Arkansas junior Julia White. White finished third in last year's championships and has a 78.44 stroke average. Roth ranks fifth in the Southland with a 75.61 scoring average in eight tournaments.
The conference tournament is slated to tee off Monday at 8 a.m., when team pairings will be based on seeding. Golfers will then play 18 holes Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday.
Eight Southland universities field a women's golf team: Central Arkansas, Lamar, McNeese State, Sam Houston State, Stephen F. Austin, UTSA, Texas A&M-Corpus Christi and Texas State.
Live scoring for the conference championship will be available at www.southland.org.
