April 16, 2016
SDSU Tournament Notes | Live Results | Championship Central
SAN DIEGO - The San Diego State women's golf team will be aiming for its second straight conference title next week when it ventures to the Palm Springs area for the Mountain West Championship, April 18-20, in Rancho Mirage, Calif. The 54-hole event will be conducted at Mission Hills Country Club on the renowned Dinah Shore Tournament Course, home of one of the LPGA Tour's majors, the ANA Inspiration, formerly known as the Kraft Nabisco Championship.
The nine-team field will play 18 holes on the par-72, 6,291-yard track each of the three days, following a practice round on Sunday. The Aztecs received the No. 2 seed are slated to tee off with No. 5 Colorado State and No. 8 Nevada in the second group on Monday, starting at 7:45 a.m. PT, while the pairings for the final two rounds with be based on team standings. A live scoring link will be available courtesy of Golfstat on GoAztecs.com.
The MW Championship returns to Mission Hills for the fourth straight season after a two-year run in 2011 and 2012 at the Wigwam Resort in Litchfield Park, Ariz., just outside of Phoenix. During the 2009 and 2010 campaigns, the event was conducted at the Black Horse Golf Club in Seaside, Calif., near Monterey. In the league's 17-year history, the championships have also been held in three other states: Oregon, Utah and New Mexico.
Aztec Lineup For This Week
Fifth-year San Diego State head coach Leslie Spalding will accompany five golfers to the Coachella Valley next week, featuring senior Emma Henrikson (Malmö, Sweden), junior Sirene Blair (South Jordan, Utah) and sophomores Georgia Lacey (Del Mar, Calif.), Mila Chaves (Asunción, Paraguay) and Haleigh Krause (Eugene, Ore.).
Henrikson will be making her fourth and final appearance at the MW Championship, while Blair finds herself in the thick of the fight for the third consecutive season. In addition, Chaves and Lacey will be competing at the conference tournament for the second year in a row, joining Krause, a first-time participant.
Henrikson, a bona fide All-America candidate, occupies the third spot nationally in the latest Golfstat Cup standings and enters the week with a No. 11 ranking by Golfweek.
SDSU At The MW Championship
The Aztecs captured the first Mountain West championship in program history in 2015 after topping runner-up New Mexico by five strokes. San Diego State established a school record for a conference tournament by shooting a 12-over 876, including a new 18-hole standard of 287 in the final round.
Despite falling on the first hole of a sudden-death playoff, Mila Chaves shattered the Aztec record for best individual score in a 54-hole league tournament last season after firing a 6-under 210, surpassing Jenna Wilson's total of 2-over 215 set in 2004. With her first-place tie in regulation, Chaves matched the finish of Christine Wong, who also came up short on the fourth hole of a playoff in 2012.
In 15 previous installments of the MW tournament, SDSU has finished fifth on seven occasions, second, third and seventh twice, while placing fourth and sixth once each.
In 2014, the Aztecs landed in a three-way tie for third after occupying the fifth position in 2013. SDSU also posted back-to-back fifth-place performances in 2010 and 2011 to go along with another third-place effort in 2012. In addition, the Scarlet and Black wound up seventh in both 2008 and 2009, following a sixth-place result in 2007. The program was also fifth in 2003, 2005 and 2006, fourth in 2004 to go along with consecutive runner-up efforts in 2001 and 2002. The Aztecs were disqualified in the inaugural tournament in 2000, after two players turned in incorrect scorecards in the third and final round.
The Competition
Six of SDSU's opponents at the MW Championship are among the top 100 teams in the latest Golfstat rankings released April 12. UNLV is the highest rated squad in the field, landing in the 17th spot this week, while Aztecs check in at No. 22, followed by New Mexico (52) San José State (55), Colorado State (68), Fresno State (76) and Nevada (96). In addition, SDSU will lock horns with Boise State (102) and Wyoming (136), while the two remaining MW members, Air Force and Utah State, do not sponsor women's golf programs.
The Aztecs own a 9-4 record in head-to-head results against six conference foes during the 2015-16 campaign, including a 2-0 mark against both Colorado State and San José State. SDSU also possesses an unblemished record this year vs. Fresno State (1-0) and Nevada (1-0), while maintaining the upper hand against New Mexico (3-1). Conversely, the Scarlet and Black has come out on the wrong side in three previous encounters with UNLV this season and has not faced Boise State or Wyoming. Individually, five of the top-10 finishers return from last year's conference championship, including medalist Manon Molle of New Mexico, who defeated SDSU's Mila Chaves in a sudden-death playoff to claim the title. Fellow Aztec Emma Henrikson (4th) is also back in the mix, joining the UNM duo of Ingrid Gutierrez and Alexandra Moisand, both of whom tied for eighth a year ago.
UNLV freshman Kaylee Benton, who enters the week ranked second in the MW, is also expected to contend, along with fellow teammates Mackenzie Raim and Elizabeth Prior, Fresno State's Kristin Simonsen, Hannah Sodersten and 2014 medalist Guðrun Björgsvindóttir, My Leander and Regina De Guzman of San José State, SDSU's Sirene Blair and Georgia Lacey, as well as Katrina Prendergast of Colorado State.
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