Feb. 19, 2016
SAN DIEGO ââ'¬" After nearly four months off from competition, the 16th-ranked San Diego State women's golf team returns to the fairways in earnest next week when it participates in Westbrook Spring Invitational, Feb. 21-22, in Peoria, Ariz. The Aztecs are one of 15 squads slated to appear in the fifth annual event, which will be contested on the par-72, 6,269-yard Vistas Course at Westbrook Village Golf Club.
The two-day, 54-hole tournament gets underway Sunday with the first two rounds in an 8:30 a.m. MT (7:30 a.m. PT) shotgun start, while the final 18 holes are scheduled to be completed on Monday. A live scoring link for all three rounds will be available courtesy of BirdieFire on GoAztecs.com.
With Wisconsin serving as host school, the field will have a strong Big Ten presence, featuring the likes of Illinois, Iowa, Indiana, Nebraska and Ohio State. In addition, SDSU will battle No. 21 Notre Dame, along with Mountain West rival and 23rd-ranked UNLV, while the College of Charleston, Kansas State, Oregon, Oregon State, SMU and Washington State round out the list of competing schools.
Fifth-year SDSU head coach Leslie Spalding will accompany six golfers to the desert, including Emma Henrikson (Malmö, Sweden), Sirene Blair (South Jordan, Utah), Georgia Lacey (Del Mar, Calif.), Haleigh Krause (Eugene, Ore.) and Mila Chaves (Asunción, Paraguay), while Hana Furuichi (San Diego, Calif.), will compete as an unattached golfer.
The Aztecs are coming off a highly successful fall slate when they posted three top-10 finishes, highlighted by consecutive team titles at the University of Washington's Edean Ihlanfeldt Invitational and the Golfweek Conference Challenge in Colorado.
Individually, SDSU is paced by Henrikson, who leads the MW with a 70.83 scoring average and occupies the fourth spot nationally in the latest Golfstat Cup standings. The Aztec senior logged two top-five placements last fall, capturing medalist honors at the Golfweek Challenge with an SDSU record-tying 10-under par 206 to go with a third-place tie at New Mexico's Branch Law Firm Dick McGuire Invitational.
In addition, Blair (72.33) finds herself at No. 54 this week in the Golfstat Cup ratings and has two top-five performances to her credit already this season. The Aztec junior finished a solo fourth at the Golfweek Challenge, followed by a fifth-place tie at the Las Vegas Collegiate Showdown.
Chaves (74.00), meanwhile, tied for fifth at the Edean Ihlanfeldt Invite and was a member of the Paraguayan women's national team that captured its first-ever championship at the Copa Los Andes in Quito, Ecuador, over Thanksgiving break last November.
SDSU will be making its inaugural appearance at the Westbrook Spring Invitational next week. Tennessee captured the team title at the tournament last season with a combined 13-under 851, three shots ahead of runner-up Oregon (-10), while the College of Charleston and Notre Dame tied for third at 4-over 868. With the Lady Vols absent from this year's field, the Ducks' Cathleen Santoso (2nd) and Chayanid Prapassarangkul of Illinois (T-3rd) are the top returning individuals.
Following its Arizona excursion, San Diego State will travel to California's Central Coast to compete in the Bruin Wave Invitational, Feb. 29-March 1, co-hosted by UCLA and Pepperdine at San Luis Obispo Country Club.