Women's golf season starts friday

What? Ball State Sunshine Invitational
Where? St. Lucie Trail Golf Club, Port St. Lucie, Fla.
When? Friday, February 10 and Saturday, February 11
Who's playing? (12 teams) Ball State, Drake, Eastern Kentucky, Illinois State, IUPUI, Keiser, Lamar, Lipscomb, McNeese State, Southern Illinois, Toledo and Valparaiso
Par 72, 6,074 yards
Live Scoring

The Saluki women's golf team will leave Southern Illinois behind this weekend for the Florida coast to play in the Ball State Sunshine Invitational.

Southern is one of 12 teams playing in the event at St. Lucie Trail Golf Club in Port St. Lucie, Fla. This will be the first time the Salukis have competed since November when the team won the F&M Bank APSU Intercollegiate. Senior Kristie Yang was the individual medalist at that tournament.

"I just want the players to relax and enjoy being in competition again," head coach Alexis Mihelich said. "I expect them to dial in on every shot and never give up. If they commit to the process of execution, the scores will be there. This team has it in them, so I don't give them any free passes. Even if it's been four months we are still capable of performing."

The varying temperatures and conditions in Southern Illinois have not allowed for the team to practice outdoors consistently. However, the majority of the teams playing in the tournament this weekend are from the Midwest and are on a level playing field when it comes to preparation.

Southern has made up for the lack of opportunities on the course with hitting drills at the indoor facility at Hickory Ridge Golf Course to work on ball striking and putting as well as finding other ways to improve as a team.

"We have been conditioning to play 36 holes the last couple weeks and physically this team is in the best shape of any team I've coached before," Mihelich said. "Our conditioning should give us an edge to move up the leaderboard once we hit holes 30 to 36 of day one. That's when teams start to fade and we hope to make up some ground during those holes."

Among the teams at the event are two ranked in the top-100 of the Golfstat Relative Rankings. Lamar is No. 88 in the nation and Eastern Kentucky is No. 89. Southern is the third highest ranked team in the field at No. 179. Conference foes Drake and Illinois State will also be at the event. SIU outperformed both teams at the MVC Preview in November.

Brooke Cusumano, Kristie Yang, Hanna Netisingha, Alice Ho and Xianmei Jin are all in the starting five for the tournament. Jin missed the majority of the fall season with a dislocated shoulder and is now ready to return to competitive action.

"I'm excited to have Xianmei back in the lineup," Mihelich said. "She's healthy and swinging the best she has in her four years here. Mentally she has become a really mature player and that will pay off this spring. She is the player to watch this semester."

For the first time in nearly a year, Southern will field an individual player in a tournament that the team is not hosting. Sophomore Sun Jung, the golfer bumped from the lineup for Jin, has played well enough to compete as an individual this weekend. Jung is averaging 78.9 strokes in the 16 rounds she has played in this season. She is one of four players to play in every round since September.

Individually, Cusumano and Jung can climb up the all-time leaderboards at SIU with strong performances. If Cusumano scores in the 70's in all-three rounds this weekend she will have the third most in program history with 63. Two rounds in the 70's for Jung will move her into the top-20.

Southern will play its practice round at St. Lucie Trail on Thursday. 36 holes will be played Friday and the final 18 holes are Saturday. Play starts at 7 a.m. Central Time on both days. Live scoring will be available for the event on Golfstat.com.

"We can't wait to get down and play in 80-degree weather," Mihelich said. "This is a competitive team and we are excited to get back to playing at this level. We can't wait to chase down the top teams at every event."

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Players Mentioned

Brooke Cusumano

Alice Ho

Xianmei Jin

Sun Jung

Hanna Netisingha

Kristie Yang

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