SHSU Women Begin Hunt for SLC Golf Title Monday
4/12/2015 3:28:00 PM | Women's Golf
The Sam Houston women's golf team will be looking to earn the Bearkats their third Southland Conference championship in the 14th renewal of the tournament.
This year's Southland event begins Monday at the Hill Course at Stonebridge Country Club in McKinney, Texas. The 6,262-yard par 72 will be hosting its first Southland women's golf tournament.
Sam Houston won the league women's golf championship in 2004 and 2007. The Bearkats finished fourth in last year's tournament.
This year's Bearkat squad has finished among the top three in five of the 10 events they have played during the 2014-15 season. Sam Houston won the team championship at the Oral Roberts tournament and finished as runner-up in the SHSU Harold Funston Invitational and tournaments at Louisiana-Monroe and Alabama-Birmingham.
Sophomore Paige Nelson owns the top stroke average for Sam Houston this season with a 74.48 mark. She won the individual medalist title at the ULM tournament. Alisa White has posted a 75.52 stroke average while Sarah Black has compiled a 76.60 mark. White and Black tied for medalist honors at the A&M-Corpus Christi Islander Classic.
Defending champion Lamar is the favorite again in 2015. The Cardinals own the highest conference Golfstat ranking entering the event. Last season, the Lady Cardinals led from the opening round and claimed their second straight and fifth overall league crown. Lamar is looking to become the first team to win three consecutive women's titles.
Houston Baptist owns the second highest team ranking among the league's entrants. This season, the Huskies have not finished outside of the top five in a tournament and have claimed two team titles.
The conference tournament is slated to tee off Monday at 8 a.m. Pairings are based on team seeding, which is calculated using the Golfstat rankings. Players will play 18 holes of golf Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday at 8 a.m.
Eight Southland universities field a women's golf team: Central Arkansas, Houston Baptist, UIW, Lamar, McNeese State, Sam Houston State, Stephen F. Austin and Texas A&M-Corpus Christi.
Live scoring for the 2015 Southland Conference Women's Golf Championship will be available at www.southland.org/WGolf.
