Oct. 6, 2017
SAN DIEGO ââ'¬" The San Diego State women's golf team closes out its fall slate next week when it travels to the Lone Star State for the Betsy Rawls Longhorn Invitational, Oct. 9-10, in Austin, Texas.
The first two rounds of the 44th annual tournament are scheduled to get underway on Monday at the University of Texas Golf Club, while the final 18 holes are pegged for a Tuesday completion on the par-72, 6,491-yard course layout.
Both days will feature an 8:30 a.m. CT/6:30 a.m. PT shotgun start, with a live scoring link courtesy of Golfstat available on GoAztecs.com.
In addition to host and No. 19 Texas, the Aztecs will face eight other schools among the top 50 in the latest Golfweek rankings, including No. 3 Arizona State, No. 10 Kent State, No. 11 Furman, No. 17 Texas Tech, No. 20 Oklahoma and No. 25 Clemson, No. 30 UNLV and No. 42 Miami (Fla.), while Baylor, Houston, LSU, SMU and Texas State round out the elite 15-team field.
Seventh-year head coach Leslie Spalding will enlist the starting lineup of freshman Gioia Carpinelli (Boppelsen, Switzerland), seniors Haleigh Krause (Eugene, Ore.), Georgia Lacey (Del Mar, Calif.) and Mila Chaves (Asunción, Paraguay), along with freshman Sara Kjellker (Hollviken, Sweden).
The Aztecs are coming off a 12th-place tie earlier this week in suburban Chicago at the highly competitive Windy City Collegiate Classic, an event that featured seven top-25 schools. Chaves was the team's top finisher, tying for 32nd on the individual leaderboard at 9-over 222.
Carpinelli and Chaves are tied for the team lead with a 74.33 scoring average entering next week's tournament, followed closely by Krause (74.56) and Lacey (74.89). Carpinelli, Krause and Lacey have started all three tournaments for the Scarlet and Black this fall, while Chaves and Kjellker (75.83) have made two each.
As a potential regional preview for next spring, SDSU will be returning to the Betsy Rawls Longhorn Invitational for the first time since 2015, when it logged a sixth-place standing among 15 teams (+41). Chaves (5th, 220 (+4)) and Krause (T-42nd, 234 (+18)) are lone holdovers from that excursion, finishing behind former Aztec All-American Emma Henrikson, who tied for third at 2-over 218.
SDSU also competed at the same event in 2013, landing in the ninth spot out of 18 squads, with former Aztec standout Sirene Blair tying for seventh on the individual leaderboard at 5-under 211.
In 1977, the Texas Invitational was renamed to honor Betsy Rawls, a UT graduate and one of the most prolific golfers of her era. Rawls won more than 50 tour championships between 1951 and 1975, including four U.S. Opens, and was inducted into the World Golf Hall of Fame in 1977. The event was moved to the fall schedule in 2010.
Kent State is the defending team champion at the Betsy Rawls Longhorn Invitational after firing a collective 2-under 862 to edge runner-up Miami (-1) by one stroke, while host Texas (+2) finished in third, followed by Baylor (+13) and Texas Tech (+17).
Six of the top seven individuals from last year's tournament are also back in the mix, including medalist Dewi Weber of Miami, who shot a 15-under 201 for a decisive victory over the Kent State duo of Michaela Finn (-8) and Pimnipa Panthong (-7), who finished second and third, respectively, while Kenzie Wright of SMU (-3) landed in the fourth spot, followed by Greta Voelker of Texas and Amy Lee of Baylor, who tied for fifth at 2-under.
Following the Betsy Rawls Longhorn Invitational, San Diego State will have four months off from competition before returning to action for the Northrop Grumman Regional Challenge, Feb. 11-13, 2018, in Palos Verdes Estates, California.