MVC Women's Golf Championship - April 20-22

[1972Shocker]

The Lady Shocks golf team warmed up for the upcoming MVC Women's Golf Championship with their 1st win of the Spring at Gary Crossley Ford Kansas City Shootout at the Shoal Creek Golf Club.

http://www.goshockers.com/ViewArticle.dbml?SPID=2834&DB_OEM_ID=7500&ATCLID=209457966

Fellow Valley members Missouri State finished 28 shots back in 7th place and Drake finished 78 shots back in 14th.

Former Valley member Creighton finished 67 shots back in 13th.

Hopefully the Ladies are peaking heading into the Valley Tournament on April 20-22 in Springfield, IL. The winner gets an automatic bid to the NCAA Regionals.

:wsu_posters:

[1972Shocker]

The Lady Shocks are the favorite to win the Valley Women's Golf Championship but SIU is a close 2nd in the pre-tournament poll of Valley coaches.

http://www.goshockers.com/ViewArticle.dbml?DB_OEM_ID=7500&ATCLID=209470131

The Tournament runs from Sunday, April 20th through Tuesday, April 22nd on the Hale Irwin designed Panther Creek Course in Springfield, IL. Right now temps are forecasted to be in the low to mid 70's for the highs with a chance of rain on Monday with winds in the 10-13 mph range. Not bad.

[flyingMoose]

Live Scoring

[1972Shocker]

The Shocks stumbled just a little down the stretch today and sit in a 3rd place tie with Illinois State 4 shots behind leader Bradley, and 1 shot behind Indiana State.

Actually as team competitions go this is a very tightly packed group occupying the Top 5 spots heading into Round 2.

[WuDrWu]

Roughly midway through today's round and the Shocks find themselves in a decent spot, up 2. Steady play from pretty much the entire team, but being led by Alejandra Arellano who heads to the back nine at -1 on the day, and sits in 3rd place overall. Megan Schuetz is +2 on the day (and the tourney) and sits right behind Alejandra in 4th.

Ugh. As I typed, Meghan's final 2 holes on the front nine are posted...bogey, double finish. Yuck. Shocks still lead by 1 at the moment. Illinois State, for what it's worth, is 12 back right now.

[1972Shocker]

The Shocks were +4 on the front nine and Bradley finally stumbled a little bit. I will take another +4 performance on the back 9 right now. The Shocks stumbled just a little bit over the final 3 holes in Round 1. Need to stay steady and avoid a repeat of that today. Looks like they could be playing in light rain today.

[1972Shocker]

Shocks were seemingly cruising and had opened up a 4-stroke lead but Frosh Samantha Stewart went from +1 to +5 with double bogeys on the 13th and 15th.

Shocks now down 1 to Indiana State and tied with Bradley.

[1972Shocker]

Everyone is in the Clubhouse at +30 or better except for Bradley (+20), Wichita State (+22) and Indiana State (+23).

Shocks pick up another double bogey on 15 by Frosh Maria Alejandra Villalobos.

Megan Schuetz had a poor round today finishing at +8 after and even par first round.

Samantha Stewart finished at +6 after being +1 though 12 holes.

We need Villalobos, Alejandra Arellano and Bryce Schroeder to hold it together over their final 3 holes.

[1972Shocker]

Bryce stumbles home with a bogey, double bogey to finish at +4.

Maria Alejandra Villalobos finishes with three consecutive par 4's after her double bogey on 15 and after struggling on 17 and 18 in Round 1. Good job by the Freshman. She finished at +6.

Another solid par-par-par finish by Jr. Alejandra Arellano who lead the charge for the Shocks today with an even par 72.

Shocks are finished at +25. Megan Schuetz final score is not in but unless she goes -3 in the final 3 holes her score will not matter today as she already is at +8.

Bradley and Indiana State still have their top golfers with 3 holes to score.

[1972Shocker]

Bradley's Danielle Lemek makes an Eagle 2 on the par 4 17th to put the Braves into the lead at +23. Lemek is -5 for the tournament.

The Shocks are 2 shots back at +25, followed by Indiana State at +27.

Furthermore, after having somewhat separated from the pack midway through Round 2 the three leaders have backed up to the pack keeping perhaps some hope for Illinois State (+30), Southern Illinois (+32) and Missouri State (+32).

If experience counts the Indiana State holds the advantage among the leaders with a 1 Senior, 3 Juniors and 1 Freshman on their squad. Both Bradley and Wichita State are very young. Bradley has 1 Junior, 3 Sophs and 1 Freshman. The Shocks have 1 Junior, 2 Sophs and 2 Frehsman.

If it comes down to has a big gun that can go low than Bradley probably has the edge with Lemek.

I'm hoping it comes down to which team can come up with 4 solid rounds. I'll take four 75's right now and take my chances.
I think the young Shocks are capable of doing that.

Should be an interesting final round.

[1972Shocker]

The team scores in the 2nd round ranged from 303 to 313. An unusually tight range for a 10-team tournament.

[1972Shocker]

The early scores seem to be somewhat elevated out of the chute today. Could be the pin placements are tougher. Could be the weather conditions. Slightly on the cool side (57) with north winds at 20 mph. My guess is the latter is having the most impact.

[WuDrWu]

The key will be trying to keep big numbers off the board. Keep your team together (for an example of what not to do, see ISUR who has already lost their one car safety margin today) and put yourself in a position to take chances late in the round without it hurting you. Everyone's on the course now, and the last of the first scores should be posted any minute.

[WuDrWu]

Not a bad start. Our top 3 are all even and Bradley too has lost their safety margin with their #5 Katerina Mangieri already +8 after 6. Still tight though with only 3 shots separating the top 3 teams, with WSU on top for now.

[1972Shocker]

The Shockers won Gateway Conference Championships in 1987 and 1992. They have never won an MVC Championship which started in 1993. That is quite a drought (21 years) that this very young Shocker team is trying to end today.