Southern Illinois University
Missouri Valley Conference Preview
Salukis second among MVC teams at MVC Preview
10/04/2016 | 7:21:00 | Women's Golf
SIU finished fifth in the tournament
The Salukis turned in a fifth-place performance at the MVC Preview on Tuesday and had the second-best result among any team in the Missouri Valley Conference.
"I learned we're a pretty strong team this week," said head coach Alexis Mihelich. "We beat eight Valley teams. You've got to be happy with that. That would have been second place if this was the conference championship."
Southern shot 308 in Tuesday's closing round to stave off Bradley, which finished two strokes behind SIU. Southern was five strokes behind fourth-place Arkansas State and 10 behind Wichita State, the defending conference champions.
"Wichita State is beatable," Alexis Mihelich said. "The championship in April will be anyone's game. Whoever is playing great that week will have a great chance. We're right up there in the mix. That's where I was hoping we would be near the end of the tournament."
Senior Brooke Cusumano had the best tournament for the Salukis. She finished tied for ninth with a three-round score of 222. Cusumano had the third-highest finish of any MVC player at the tournament behind Wichita State's Taryn Torgerson, who won the tournament, and Bradley's Taylor Ledwein. Cusumano was 1-under-par on par threes throughout the event.
Southern also proved it has a lot of depth. The team fielded three individuals, sophomore Jackie Biggs and freshmen Lili Klekner-Alt and Erica Kerr. All three players turned in good single-round scores throughout the tournament.
"You can see that our two freshmen are pretty good. Eventually they are going to grow into players in the lineup," Mihelich said. "They're pretty close to their teammates so it forces one through five to keep their game up."
Murray State was crowned as the champion of the MVC Preview. The Racers' scores were well ahead of the rest of the teams at the tournament. Murray's team score of 871 was just five strokes over par. The Racers were 13 strokes ahead of second place UMKC.
The Salukis will play their final tournament of the fall season on Monday and Tuesday when they travel to the F&M Bank APSU Intercollegiate in Clarksville, Tennessee.
Team leaderboard
1 Murray State 2 90 291 290 871 +7
2 UMKC 292 295 297 884 +20
3 Wichita State 303 294 300 897 +33
4 Arkansas State 301 291 310 902 +38
5 Southern Illinois 310 289 308 907 +43
6 Bradley 305 295 309 909 +45
7 Austin Peay State 302 304 309 915 +51
8 Indiana State 312 301 314 927 +63
9 Illinois State 312 300 316 928 +64
10 Missouri State 310 311 309 930 +66
11 Drake 321 305 326 952 +88
12 Evansville 327 314 324 965 +101
13 Loyola 311 319 341 971 +107
14 Northern Iowa 333 314 337 984 +120
Saluki individual scores
T9 Brooke Cusamano +6 77 71 74 222
T15 Kristie Yang +10 78 70 78 226
T22 Hanna Netisingha +12 78 72 78 228
T32 Alice Ho +15 77 76 78 231
T60 Sun Jung +26 83 78 81 242
Players Mentioned
