Sept. 12, 2014
SAN DIEGO - Fresh off its season-opening victory at the Ptarmigan Ram Classic, the San Diego State women's golf team continues its fall schedule next week when it heads east for the Branch Law Firm/Dick McGuire Invitational, Sept. 15-16, in Albuquerque, New Mexico.
The two-day, 54-hole event gets underway Monday with the first two rounds on the par-73, 6,192-yard UNM Championship Course, beginning at 8 a.m. MT (7 a.m. PT), while the final 18 holes will be contested on Tuesday. A live scoring link will be available courtesy of BirdieFire.com.
Along with the Aztecs, the 16-team field features defending tournament champion Pepperdine, which received a No. 12 preseason ranking by Golfweek, as well as an additional trio of top-30 squads in No. 14 Northwestern, No. 15 Oklahoma State and No. 26 Iowa State. SDSU will also battle Mountain West foes Colorado State, Nevada, UNLV and host New Mexico, while Brigham Young, California, Denver, Gonzaga, Kansas State and UTEP round out the list of competing schools.
Fourth-year Aztec head coach Leslie Spalding will utilize the same lineup employed earlier this week at the Ptarmigan Ram Classic, featuring Emma Henrikson, Sirene Blair, Mila Chaves, Paige Spiranac and Georgia Lacey. In addition, Haleigh Krause will make her collegiate debut as an unattached competitor.
Henrikson captured medalist honors in Colorado for her first collegiate victory, carding a 5-under 211, while Blair finished one stroke behind in the runner-up spot to help propel SDSU to its fifth tournament title in the last six years.
Blair was the Aztecs' top performer at the Branch/McGuire last season, landing eight shots out of the lead in the third position after shooting a 4-under 215, while Henrikson finished alone in 15th at 2-over 221, followed by Spiranac, who tied for 31st at 7-over 226. As a team, SDSU wound up sixth in the standings with a collective total of 19-over 895.
Pepperdine's Marissa Chow is the top returning individual after placing second in the tournament last year with a combined 6-under 213, while Wave teammate Somin Lee tied the Aztecs' Blair for the third spot.
This year marks the 36th installment of the Branch/McGuire, which became a separate event in 1979, after the New Mexico women's squad co-hosted the William H. Tucker Invitational with the Lobo men's team from 1956-78. With the exception of the 2007-08 campaign when the tournament was dormant, SDSU has appeared in each of the last 11 Branch/McGuire Invites, highlighted by a fifth-place finish in 2011.
Following their New Mexico excursion, the Aztecs will have over three weeks to prepare for the Betsy Rawls Longhorn Invitational, scheduled for Oct. 12-14, in Austin, Texas.