With the regular-season schedule now in the books, the woman’s golf team gets set for the Western Athletic Conference Championship in Meza, Ariz., that begins today and will conclude on Sunday.
The women’s team has had plenty of success at the tournament in recent years, having a member win the individual title two out of the last three years. Hali Coppin won the title last year and Laura Luethke won in 2008. Both Coppin and Luethke have since graduated.
The year Luethke won her title was also the first and only time that the Bulldogs won the tournament as a team. Since taking home the 2008 WAC team championship, the Bulldogs have not finished lower than fourth.
The Bulldogs head in to the tournament after finishing ninth at the Pacific Coast Intercollegiate. Junior Louisa Lies led the team tying 13th at the event, but slipped the final day after heading into the tournament’s final round in fourth place.
Lies, a junior, finished in 11th place in last year’s WAC Championships and was named second team All-WAC. She also finished in second in the tournament as a freshman.
Fresno State’s five-woman roster for the tournament will be Christine Uhalde, Krysta Clark, Shaylee Yano, Chelsea Czinski and Lies.
The Bulldogs will be paired with the New Mexico State Aggies throughout the tournament. Uhalde will be Fresno’s first golfer with a tee time at 8:10 a.m. today with the second set of teams. The remaining Bulldogs will then follow teeing off in eight-minute intervals.
Fresno State has just one player, Czinski, that was part of the 2008 championship team. Czinski was a freshman at the time and is the lone senior this year, making the WAC Championships her final run in conference play.
“I guess it’s a little different since it’s my last one,” Czinski said. “I really want to have fun. I’m going to miss being on a team.”
The Bulldogs’ highest finishes this year were second place in the 16-team Lamkin Grip/Cal Poly Invitational in November, as well as two third-place finishes at the Heather Farr Memorial and the Santa Clara Colby Invitational.
Seven members of the WAC will participate in the three-day event. Boise State and Nevada will take the early tee while Idaho, San Jose State and Hawaii will take the late tee times.
Of the seven teams competing, only New Mexico State has won a competition this year. The Aggies won a 14-team tournament they hosted back in October.
This will be the second straight year that the tournament will be held at a neutral site in Arizona. The previous tournaments were held on a rotating basis between the WAC teams. Being a three-day event, the tournament is set up a little differently than most regular-season events.
“It’s going to be different because they play 18 holes each day instead of 36 and 18,” Clark, a sophomore, said.
Fresno State will advance to the NCAA Regionals if they win the conference tournament.
“Every other tournament prepares us for the WAC Championship, and we can’t move unless we win the WAC,” Clark added.