Oct. 5, 2015
SAN DIEGO ââ'¬" After a two-week hiatus, the San Diego State women's golf team returns to the course this week when it competes in the Edean Ihlanfeldt Invitational, Oct. 6-7, in Sammamish, Wash.
The first two rounds of the 54-hole tournament will be played on Tuesday at the par-72, 6,039-yard Sahalee Country Club in suburban Seattle, followed by final-round action on Wednesday. A live scoring link courtesy of Golfstat will be available both days on GoAztecs.com.
The Aztecs, who enter the week at No. 23 in the latest Golfweek/Sagarin index, will battle eight additional schools ranked among the top 75, including host Washington (13), Colorado (15), TCU (37), Gonzaga (54), Pepperdine (62), San Francisco (66), California (70) and Kansas State (71), while Colorado State, Hawai'i, Oregon State and Seattle round out the competitive field of 13 squads.
Fifth-year head coach Leslie Spalding will employ the same lineup that captured the team title at the Golfweek Conference Challenge in Colorado on Sept. 23, featuring senior Emma Henrikson (Malmö, Sweden) and junior Sirene Blair (South Jordan, Utah), while sophomores Mila Chaves (Asunción, Paraguay), Haleigh Krause (Eugene, Ore.) and Georgia Lacey (Del Mar, Calif.) will also make the trek to the Pacific Northwest.
Henrikson is coming off a medal-winning performance at the Golfweek Challenge, where she established the tournament record with a 10-under 206, which also matched a school standard for lowest 54-hole score, while Blair finished alone in fourth at 2-over 218, followed closely by Krause, who tied for eighth with a 4-over 220.
Henrikson, who leads the the Aztecs with a 69.83 scoring average through two events, finds herself in the sixth spot in this week's Golfweek/Sagarin individual rankings, while Blair (72.83) checks in at No. 94.
SDSU will be making just its second appearance at the Edean Ihlanfeldt Invitational after finishing 11th in 2012. Henrikson is the lone holdover from that visit to Sahalee, where she tied for 13th on the individual leaderboard with an 11-over 227 in the third event of her freshman campaign.
Washington claimed the team title last season with a 5-under 571 after the tournament was reduced to 36 holes thanks to some foggy conditions, while the Huskies' Charlotte Thomas (T-4th, +2) is the top returning individual, followed by UW teammate Ying Luo (T-8th, +3) and Raychelle Santos of Gonzaga (T-8th, +3).
Following their venture to the Evergreen State, the Aztecs will wrap up their fall schedule in three weeks when they compete in the Las Vegas Collegiate Showdown, Oct. 25-27, in Boulder City, Nev. SDSU is the two-time defending champion, including a shared crown last year.