Huskers Travel to McHaney/Morehead Invite

Lincoln - The Nebraska women’s golf team hopes to continue its strong start to the 2008-09 season when the Huskers journey to Lubbock, Texas, for the McHaney/Morehead Invitational, Oct. 6-7.

The Huskers, who opened the 2008 fall season by winning the Chip-N Club Invitational, added a first-place tie at the Marilynn Smith/Sunflower Invite two weeks ago. Nebraska lost a two-hole playoff to Oral Roberts for the tournament title at Kansas, but remained unbeaten in head-to-head competition in the national statistics.

Nebraska will face a Big 12-rich field on the 6,525-yard layout at The Rawls Course. Baylor, Colorado, Kansas, Kansas State, Missouri and the hosts from Texas Tech will join Nebraska in the 13-team field. Nebraska and the other Big 12 schools will use the event as a preview for the 2008 Big 12 Championships scheduled to be competed at The Rawls Course, April 24-26.

Kate White will play at the top of the Husker lineup in Lubbock after tying for fourth (229) at the Marilynn Smith/Sunflower Invite, Sept. 22-23. The junior from Waukegan, Ill., opened the season by tying for eighth at the Chip-N Club Invite, Sept. 15-16.

True freshman Natalie Gleadall will occupy the No. 2 spot after tying for seventh in Kansas. The Stratford, Ontario, native has opened her NU career with a pair of top-25 finishes after tying for 22nd at the Chip-N Club.

Sophomore Mary Kate Bird has added a pair of top-15 showings to open the season, including a career-best second-place finish at the Chip-N Club to start the year. Bird tied for 14th at the Marilynn Smith/Sunflower last time out.

Junior JC Stevenson has joined Bird in the top 15 in both tournaments, after finishing fifth at the Chip-N Club and tying for 14th in Kansas.

Sophomore Rachel Hanigan will round out NU’s starting five in Texas after tying for 28th in Kansas. Hanigan opened the season in the Husker lineup and tied for 30th at the Chip-N Club, but played on NU’s "B" team at the Marilynn Smith/Sunflower Invite.

The Huskers will open play on Monday, Oct. 6, with a shotgun start at 8:30 a.m. NU will play two rounds on the par 72 course on the first day, before covering the final 18 holes on Tuesday. The final round will also begin with a shotgun start at 8:30 a.m.

Huskers Open Season with Chip-N Club Championships
Mary Kate Bird produced the best finish of her collegiate career with a one-under-par 215 to finish in second place individually, while powering Nebraska to the team title with a three-round total of 884 at the 2008 Chip-N Club Invitational at Wilderness Ridge Golf Course, Sept. 15-16.

Bird, a sophomore from Kansas City, Mo., headed a contingent of five Husker individuals who finished in the top 10 at Nebraska’s season-opening tournament. Bird managed a final-round 73 to go along with an opening-round 70 and a second-round 72. The 215 marked Bird’s best tournament score of her career, while the second-place finish was also a career best.

Unfortunately for Bird, Arkansas-Little Rock’s Sara Wickstrom walked away with the individual title by birdeying the 18th hole to finish Tuesday’s final round with a one-under-par 71 to close the tournament at 214 with medalist honors.

"I can’t say enough about Mary Kate Bird," Nebraska Coach Robin Krapfl said. "She had to eagle her last hole in qualifying just to get into the starting lineup for the tournament. Then she played solid golf throughout the tournament. In the last round she played great and just came up one stroke short. But she played tough and had a great tournament."

Husker junior JC Stevenson closed the tournament with a final-round 71 to finish in fifth place at 220. Fellow juniors Kate White and Charlotte Wendner added eighth-place finishes at 222. White, playing on NU’s top team, matched Bird with a final-round 73, while Wendner produced the best round of the day by any golfer with a career-low, three-under-par 69 to add a 222 of her own. Wendner led the Nebraska "B" team to a sixth-place team finish in the 13-team field. The Huskers’ second unit closed the tournament with a solid score of 909.

"Heading into the tournament I knew we had a very talented team, but you never know what’s going to happen," Krapfl said. "To have them come out and play this well, especially in the final round, shows the kind of competitiveness our team possesses. I think this could turn out to be a special season for us."

Huskers Tie for First at Marilynn Smith/Sunflower Invite
Nebraska finished strong and climbed from third into a tie for first in the final round before losing a two-hole playoff to Oral Roberts at the Marilynn Smith/Sunflower Invitational at the Alvamar Golf Course, Sept. 22-23.

The Huskers, who entered Tuesday’s final 18 holes four shots back of Oral Roberts and two shots behind Illinois State, made up the gap with solid efforts from their top four golfers, as each finished among the top 15 individuals in the tournament.

Kate White produced her second straight top-10 individual finish to open the season with a final-round 78 to close at 229 in a tie for fourth place. White, a junior from Waukegan, Ill., was joined in the top 10 by Husker true freshman Natalie Gleadall. The native of Stratford, Ontario, Canada, managed a final-round 79 to close the 54-hole event in a tie for seventh at 232.

But it was junior JC Stevenson who fueled the Huskers’ charge to the top of the team leaderboard at the end of regulation on Tuesday afternoon. The Grand Island native fired a final-round 73 to vault into a tie for 14th at 234. Stevenson was joined by another hard-charging Husker, Kansas City, Mo., native Mary Kate Bird, who sizzled for a one-under-par 35 over the final nine holes to close the day at 77 to match Stevenson in a tie for 14th.

"JC really played solid golf from start-to-finish today," Nebraska Coach Robin Krapfl said. "She really put us in a position to battle for the team title, along with Mary Kate Bird who finished really strong."

Oral Roberts won the team title with rounds of 307, 308 and 311 to finish at 926 on the par-72, 6,242-yard layout at Alvamar. Nebraska matched the Golden Eagles with rounds of 307, 312 and 307. Illinois State finished four shots off the pace at 930, while South Florida claimed fourth at 931.

Huskers Ranked 53rd in GolfStat Head-to-Head Rankings
Nebraska was ranked No. 53 nationally in the GolfStat head-to-head rankings released on Oct. 1. The Huskers were the sixth-highest ranked team in the Big 12 according to the early rankings.

Oklahoma State was ranked fifth to lead the conference, followed by No. 31 Colorado, No. 38 Texas A&M, No. 45 Texas and No. 48 Missouri. Baylor came in at No. 58, while Texas Tech was 65th, Iowa State 67th, Oklahoma 79th and Kansas was 83rd. Kansas State was the lowest-ranked Big 12 team, coming in at No. 134.

Husker Juniors Expect to Form Strong Nucleus in 2008-09
Nebraska juniors JC Stevenson, Kate White and Charlotte Wendner return to anchor a young and talented Husker lineup in 2008-09. All three competed in the 2008 NU lineup at the Big 12 Championships and NCAA Central Regional, nearly carrying the Huskers to their fourth NCAA Championship appearance in history.

Stevenson, a native of Grand Island, Neb., capped a stellar sophomore season by tying for 14th at the NCAA Central Regional with best regional tournament score in school history (220). She played in all 37 rounds for NU and posted the Huskers’ second-best stroke average on the season (77.73).

Last year, White’s season got off to a slow start in the fall after suffering a knee injury in wet playing conditions on the first day of the Chip-N Club Invitational. The injury forced her out of the lineup for one tournament and affected her play until late in the year when she came on to post a top-20 Big 12 finish.

Wendner, a native of Bjarred, Sweden, helped the Huskers surge down the stretch last season. Wendner took hold of NU’s final lineup spot in the spring after tying for second at the BYU Dixie Classic. She added an 18th-place finish at the Big 12 Championships.

Young Huskers Hoping to Make an Impact
Sophomores Rachel Hanigan and Mary Kate Bird are hoping to play significant roles in Nebraska’s fortunes in 2008-09.

Hanigan, a native of Dunlap, Iowa, has been playing strong golf during qualifying rounds leading up to the Chip-N Club Invitational, and could earn a lineup spot for the first time entering her third season in Lincoln.

Bird, a sophomore from Kansas City, Mo., got her first taste of collegiate action as a true freshman in the Husker lineup a year ago. Bird competed in five tournaments, including lineup spots at the Edwin Watts/Palmetto Invitational and Central District Invitational. However, her rookie campaign ended on a bit of a down note after she had to withdraw from the late-season Lady Buckeye Spring Invite with the flu. The illness also kept her out of NU’s lineup at the Big 12 Championships, and she did not play at the NCAA Central Regional.

Bird definitely showed potential with top-25 finishes at both the Mountain View Collegiate and BYU Dixie Classic during the spring of 2008, and after a solid summer, will be looking to be a major contributor this season.

Freshmen May Play Major Roles in Husker Success
Nebraska Coach Robin Krapfl has added three highly touted freshmen in what could become the best recruiting class in Husker history.

Maddie Sheils (Boise, Idaho) and Natalie Gleadall (Stratford, Ontario, Canada) have both competed at the highest levels of junior golf.

Sheils was ranked 29th nationally in the Polo Golf rankings for the Class of 2008, after winning the prestigious Trusted Choice Big "I" Junior Classic in 2007. Sheils added an 11th-place finish at the Big "I" in 2008.

Gleadall is coming off a strong summer of competition after advancing to the semifinals of the Women’s Western Golf Association National Championships in Indiana. She added a top-20 finish at the Royale Canadian Junior Championships and also competed in the Canadian Women’s Amateur.

Gleadall also represented Ontario in the 2008 Doug Sanders International Junior Championships.

Carolyn Schorgl, a standout all-around student-athlete at Notre Dame de Sion in Missouri, rounds out the impressive true freshman class. Schorgl, from Leawood, Kan., was the 2007 Four-State Individual Champion and finished third at the 2007 Missouri Junior Girls Championship.

Huskers Continue to Set the Pace in the Classroom
JC Stevenson, Kate White and Allison Stewart all captured NGCA Scholastic All-America honors for the Huskers at the conclusion of the 2007-08 campaign. The three awards pushed Nebraska’s nation-leading total to 50 all-time.

Stewart, who earned her bachelor’s degree in business administration from Nebraska in May of 2008, became just the second Husker in history to claim four NGCA Scholastic All-America awards, joining Jackie Beste (2003-06).

Stevenson and White, both juniors on the 2008-09 Husker squad, are well on their way to matching Beste and Stewart in that category after winning their second awards as sophomores in 2008.

The academic success of the Nebraska women’s golf team is impressive up and down the lineup. In fact, all six returning letterwinners on the Husker roster own better than a 3.4 individual grade-point average, led by White’s 3.9 GPA. Place is approaching a 3.8 GPA entering her senior year academically, while Stevenson, Bird and Hanigan own GPA’s near 3.7.

Nebraska’s academic success is nothing new. In 2006-07, the Husker women’s golf team produced the fifth-best team grade-point-average of any collegiate women’s golf team in the nation.