Oct. 23, 2015
SAN DIEGO -- The 13th-ranked San Diego State women's golf team wraps up its fall schedule early next week when it heads to the Silver State for the Las Vegas Collegiate Showdown, Oct. 25-27, at the par-72, 6,277-yard Boulder Creek Golf Club in Boulder City, Nevada. The three-day 54-hole event commences on Sunday with first-round action at noon PT, while the starting times for both Monday and Tuesday are set for 8 a.m.
Boulder Creek's Desert Hawk Course will serve as the front nine throughout the 14th annual tournament, while the Coyote Run Course will be played as the back nine. A live scoring link courtesy of BirdieFire will be available on GoAztecs.com.
The Aztecs will battle seven schools ranked among the top 50 in the latest Golfweek/Sagarin index, including Tennessee (12), host UNLV (22), Missouri (24), New Mexico (25), Texas (42), Vanderbilt (46) and Minnesota (49). In addition, SDSU will be afforded an early look at four other Mountain West rivals in Colorado State, Fresno State, Nevada and San José State, while Idaho, Indiana, Gonzaga, Long Beach State, Michigan, Nebraska and UC Irvine round out the highly competitive field of 19 teams.
For the third straight tournament, fifth-year Aztec head coach Leslie Spalding will employ the starting lineup of senior Emma Henrikson (Malmö, Sweden), junior Sirene Blair (South Jordan, Utah) and sophomores Georgia Lacey (Del Mar, Calif.), Mila Chaves (Asuncion, Paraguay) and Haleigh Krause (Eugene, Ore.). In addition, freshman Kitty Tam (Hong Kong) will make the trek to the desert as an unattached golfer.
The Aztecs will be aiming for the their third consecutive team title of the season after taking home the crown at the University of Washington's Edean Ihlanfeldt Invitational in their last outing on Oct. 7. SDSU was also victorious at the Golfweek Conference Challenge in Colorado on Sept. 23, where it established a school standard for lowest 54-hole score at 6-under 858.
Individually, Henrikson enters the week with No. 5 national ranking by Golfweek, while Blair checks in at No. 82.
Henrikson leads the team with a 71.56 scoring average and two top-five finishes, including a medal-winning performance at the Golfweek Challenge, where she tied an Aztec record for three rounds after firing a 10-under 206, highlighted by consecutive 67s in the second and third rounds. The reigning Mountain West Women's Golfer of the Month also landed in a tie for third place at the University of New Mexico's season-opening Branch Law Firm/Dick McGuire Invitational in early September.
In addition, Blair ranks second on the squad with a 73.67 stroke average to go with a pair of top-20 efforts, including a solo fourth at the Golfweek Challenge, while Georgia Lacey (74.50) is coming off her best finish as in an Aztec uniform at the Edean Ihlanfeldt Invite where she tied for ninth.
Not to be outdone, Chaves (75.22), the MW individual runner-up from a year ago, was SDSU's top golfer at the aforementioned tournament in Seattle, where she tied for fifth at 5-over 221.
The Aztecs will be appearing at the Las Vegas Collegiate Showdown for the sixth straight year and seventh time overall since 2004. The Scarlet and Black has returned with the team trophy from Sin City in each of the past two campaigns, including a shared crown with Minnesota a year ago after both squads shot a combined 1-under 863 at the same Boulder Creek complex. The tournament was shortened to two rounds due to high winds at Stallion Mountain Golf Course in 2013, but SDSU (+3) still emerged triumphant, while Blair took home medalist honors after carding a 6-under 138.
Following its Vegas excursion, San Diego State will have the next three-and-a-half months off before returning to competition at the Westbrook Spring Invitational, Feb. 21-22, 2016, at Westbrook Village Golf Club in Peoria, Arizona.