LCSC women’s golf team opens national tourney on Tuesday

05-19-08

SAN DIEGO, Calif. – Steve Tilden says the Lewis-Clark State College women’s golf team seems to be coming around at the right time. 

The Warrior coach will find out if that’s true starting today when the Warriors take part in the 2008 NAIA Women’s Golf National Championships at the Lake San Marcos Country Club. 

The four-day 72-hole tournament features 23 teams – 13 regional champions and 10 at-large bids – and five individual qualifiers. The tournament features 18 holes each day and each team will have five players, but only the top four scores each day will be used to determine the team score. 

LCSC received the final at-large berth for the tournament after an up-and-down season that saw the Warriors finish a distant second to Rocky Mountain in the Frontier Conference standings, and then finish fifth in the Region I Tournament. The region, however, earned five berths to the national tournament, including the final three at-large berths available. 

This will be the fourth time in the last five years the Warrior women have played at the national tournament.  

In the two weeks after the Region I tournament, the Warriors spent a quite a bit of time working on their short game, which Tilden feels will be one of the keys to playing well this week. 

“The placement of tee shots and the short game are the keys,” Tilden says. “On this course, you have to get to the right part of the green.” 

The Warriors, who finished 14th a year ago, have the goal of placing in the top 10 this year. 

“I think that is a reasonable and reachable goal,” Tilden says.  

The Warriors will tee off with the first groups on Tuesday morning, starting at 7:30 a.m., and then will be among the last groups on Wednesday. 

Senior Samara Kluever is making her fourth straight trip to nationals and is the lone senior playing on this year’s squad. She is joined by Juanita Villa, a junior who has been the Warriors’ leading scorer this season. Sophomores Cortney Shrout and Sue James, join freshman Alana Norris to round out the team. 

Shrout took part in a long drive contest on Monday and finished just four yard short of making the finals, which feature the five players with the longest drives. 

Also on Monday, the banquet was held and James was honored with the team’s Champion of Character Award, while Kluever and Villa earned academic All-America honors.