UNI Ready for 2018 MVC Championship Meet

LIVE SCORING

Bradley, which last won an MVC women's golf crown in 2006, is the favorite to win the 2018 Missouri Valley Conference Women's Golf Championship, according to a pre-championship poll of league coaches. In addition to Bradley, Missouri State, UNI (both received first-place votes in the poll) and Southern Illinois figure to be among the leading contenders at this year's championship, which will be played at Sand Creek Station in Newton, Kan. The championship begins Sunday, April 15, and concludes Tuesday, April 17. Teams will play 18 holes each day. The MVC's 54-hole tournament champion will advance to the NCAA Regionals.

The Braves will look to deliver on a consistent trend in recent Valley history in which the pre-championship favorite has won; notably 11 of the last 15 pre-championship favorites have won the title. The pre-championship favorite Braves have four all-time team titles in MVC women's golf, and only three schools have more (Illinois State, Southern Illinois and Wichita State).

2017 REVIEW: Missouri State earned its third all-time league women's title with a wire-to-wire run at the 2017 Missouri Valley Conference Championship, contested at the par-72, 6,214-yard layout at the Dalhousie Golf Club in Cape Girardeau, Mo. The Bears fired a three-round 302-314-297—913 to outdistance pre-championship favorite Wichita State (933) by 20 strokes. The 20-stroke margin was the largest at an MVC women's golf championship since 1996 when Tulsa earned a 47-stroke victory. Missouri State had previously claimed MVC crowns in 2001 and 2012.

Kayla Katterhenry of Evansville established a league record by winning her 11th career tournament, and she became the first UE golfer to earn medalist honors at the MVC Championship after firing a three-round 72-72-74—218. Marissa Uradomo of Indiana State and Verena Gimmy of Missouri State tied for runner-up honors, as each had a 54-hole total of 222. Katterhenry and Uradomo completed their MVC careers having earned first-team all-MVC honors four times each (joining six others who previously accomplished the feat).

2018 PREVIEW: Bradley enters the tournament as the league's top-rated team in the GolfStat team head-to-head team ratings. Missouri State is second in the ratings, while UNI and Southern Illinois follow close behind. MVC teams combined for nine team championships this year, including three each by Loyola and Southern Illinois. Missouri State's Gimmy, meanwhile, sits atop the league's head-to-head standings, and has the league's best stroke average at 75.19 through 27 rounds -- it's the 15th best individual single-season stroke average on record in MVC history. She has two medalist wins this year. She's joined by teammates Rachel Johnson and Stine Pettersen among the league leaders in stroke average. Bradley has a pair of MVC Golfer of the Year candidates, including Taylor Ledwein and Ally Scaccia, both are among the league best in stroke average this year at 76.19 and 76.15, respectively. Picked third in the poll, UNI has had leadership from a newcomer, Emily Snelling, who is fresh off medalist honors in the Indiana State Spring Invitational this past week. Other individuals who figure to be in the mix for top league honors include Southern Illinois' Hanna Netisingha (76.18 stroke average), Loyola Chicago's Elayna Bowser (76.47), Indiana State's Thilda Staubo (76.37), and Illinois State's Kiley Walsh (77.59).

Sand Creek Station plays on the town's railroad history, and many holes are, as they say in Scotland, "hard by the cinders," continuing a century's old tradition of golf bordering railways. The course has also recreated the famous Road Hole green on our 16th hole, which once sat adjacent to a railway. Another replicates the famous "Redan" from North Berwick, Scotland. Other holes have characteristics of early American holes, which also fronted railways at one time. The 12th hole for example, is similar to the fourth at the National Golf Links of America, one of our early classics. The ninth features a small platform green; typical of early American courses while the green on the par 5 fourth has some wild contours, seldom built these days. Despite playing on these old style characteristics, the course is thoroughly modern in other ways. The 10th is a long par 5 requiring negotiation of water on all three shots. The 18th is a long par 4 requiring a tee shot to a narrow fairway between flanking fairway bunkers. On the front nine, the long sixth may be the toughest hole.

Schedule of Events
Sunday, April 15
Round 1 -- 12:30 pm -- shotgun

Monday, April 16
Round 2—10:30 am -- tee times (off holes No. 1 and No. 10)

Tuesday, April 17
Round 3 -- 8:30 am -- tee times (off holes No. 1 and No. 10) [Awards Ceremony to follow.]

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