Southern Illinoise University Athletics
Women's Golf set to compete in Rio Verde Invitational
03/08/2007 | 12:00:00 | Women's Golf
March 8, 2007
By Ryan Shaw
www.SIUSalukis.com
CARBONDALE, Ill. - The Saluki women's golf team will travel to Rio Verde, Ariz. this weekend to compete in the Rio Verde Collegiate Invitational hosted by Western Michigan University.
This will be the Salukis' third year participating in the tournament, which will be held at the par-72 Quail Run Course at the Rio Verde Country Club.
"This will be our third year to compete, so it's obviously nice to go back to a golf course that you're familiar with and the players all like it, so that's good," said Southern Illinois head coach Diane Daugherty.
The three-day, 54-hole tournament features an 18-field team, which includes Missouri Valley foes Bradley, Illinois State and Missouri State. The field also includes University of Illinois, Texas Tech, Ohio University, Xavier University, Minnesota, University of Toledo, Bowling Green State, University of Cincinnati, Western Michigan, Ball State, Baylor, Arkansas- Little Rock, Eastern Michigan, and the University of Wisconsin.
According to Daugherty, she is more concerned about the performance of her team than the composition of the tournament field.
"In golf we don't pay that much attention to the other teams because we are playing the course," Daugherty said. "It doesn't really matter who is there because we are going after scores. Obviously, we'd like to beat the people there from our conference."
The Salukis are coming off of a seventh-place tie at the Islander Spring Classic where they shot their lowest round of the spring season as a team at 299.
"That's a top-20 team in the country when you can break 300," said Daugherty. "I am excited that we are getting comfortable shooting under 300."
Daugherty is also excited that the Rio Verde Invitational is a play six, count four format.
"This is a great tournament for us because we are deep and we get to count four of six instead of four of five like last week when Sam (Sutzer) didn't even count because she was our sixth player and she ended up being our low scorer," said Daugherty. "That's how deep we are. Sam went from playing No. 6 in Texas and she's playing No. 1 now in Rio Verde.
"They can flip flop because at any time any of them has the chance to be the low scorer. That I what makes our team have such great potential, we are very, very deep. Counting four of six I really have high hopes for us to play very well this weekend."
Play is scheduled to begin on Friday, March 9, and will continue through Sunday, March 11. Daily recaps and results can be found at www.siusalukis.com at the conclusion of each round, and live scoring will be available at golfstat.com.
