April 12, 2014
SAN DIEGO - Following a 19-day hiatus, the San Diego State women's golf team returns to action early next week when it travels north to wine country for the inaugural Silverado Showdown, April 14-15, at the renowned Silverado Resort and Spa in Napa, Calif. The two-day, 54-hole event gets underway Monday with the first two rounds on the famed North Course, while the final 18 holes are scheduled to be completed on Tuesday.
An 8:30 a.m. PT shotgun start is slated for both days and a live scoring link courtesy of Golfstat will be available on www.goaztecs.com.
The 43rd-ranked Aztecs will battle an elite field that features eight other squads ranked in the latest Golfstat.com index, including No. 1 USC, ninth-ranked Arizona, No. 11 Washington, 20th-ranked Northwestern, No. 33 California, tournament co-host and 35th-ranked Oregon, No. 44 UNLV and No. 46 Wisconsin. In its final tune-up before the Mountain West championships, SDSU will also square off against three additional conference foes in New Mexico, San José State and Fresno State, while co-host Colorado, Oregon State and Washington State round out the list of 15 competing schools.
Third-year Aztec head coach Leslie Spalding will utilize the starting lineup of sophomore Emma Henrikson (Malmö, Sweden), freshman Sirene Blair (South Jordan, Utah), junior Paige Spiranac (Scottsdale, Ariz.), junior Amy Alston (Mission Viejo, Calif.) and freshman Maureen Dunnagan (Lexington, S.C.).
Henrikson and Blair both enter the week with a No. 55 national ranking according to the latest Golfstat individual ratings and also share the third spot in the Mountain West with a 72.79 stroke average. Henrikson is coming off a fifth-place finish at the SDSU Farms Invitational on March 26, posting a 1-over 217, including her two lowest collegiate scores of 68 and 69 during the first two rounds. For her efforts, the native Swede garnered MW Co-Golfer of the Week accolades.
Blair, meanwhile, was the Aztecs top finisher in all four events last fall, highlighted by medalist honors at the Las Vegas Collegiate Showdown in October, when she led the Scarlet and Black to their first team title of the season.
In addition to Henrikson and Blair, Spiranac is the only other SDSU player to earn a start in all seven tournaments this year and owns a 76.11 scoring average, which ranks 11th in the MW. The Arizona native has a pair of top-15 finishes to her credit, including a 13th-place tie in Las Vegas last fall. Meanwhile, Alston will be making her first start of the season at Silverado after appearing as an individual competitor in Vegas and at the Farms.
The Silverado complex has two championship courses and will play host the first event of the PGA Tour schedule, the Frys.com Open, on the recently renovated North Course from Oct. 7-13. Since its launch in 2006, the Frys.com Open has generated five million dollars to local and national charities.
The North Course, which features dozens of water crossings, elevation changes and routing through historic oak trees, was recently redesigned by Johnny Miller, a former PGA Tour star, World Golf Hall of Fame Member and current lead golf analyst for NBC Sports.
Following the Silverado Showdown, San Diego State will have 10 days to prepare for the 2014 Mountain West championships, schedules for April 24-26 at Mission Hills Country Club in Rancho Mirage, Calif.