Huskers Journey to Dale McNamara Invite

The Nebraska women's golf team will compete for the third consecutive week when the Huskers travel to the Dale McNamara Invitational hosted by the University of Tulsa, Monday, Oct. 11 through Wednesday, Oct. 13.

The Huskers will be part of a talent-rich 16-team field that will take to the 6,450-yard, par-72 layout of the Patriot Golf Club in Owasso, Okla.

Nebraska is one of five Big 12 teams in the field, joining Oklahoma State, Oklahoma, Texas and Kansas State.

The three-day tournament opens with tee times on Monday beginning at 8 a.m. The teams will play 18 holes each day, with GolfStat.com providing live scoring.

Nebraska will try to rebound from a tough performance at the Johnie Imes Invitational on Oct. 4-5, when the Huskers finished 15th (943) in a 15-team field.

The challenge will be large again, as the Huskers will be without the services of lone senior Mary Kate Bird.

Bird was scratched from NU's lineup at the Johnie Imes Invite due to illness. The Huskers' most experienced golfer, Bird owned NU's fourth-best stroke average (78.00) before the illness.

Junior Kayla Knopik provided a bright spot for the Huskers in Missouri by firing a career-best 229 over three rounds to finish in a tie for 36th. Knopik's tournament included a season-best 74 in the final round. Knopik is the only Husker this season to shoot eight consecutive rounds better than 80 to open the year.

Fellow junior Madeleine Sheils has provided NU's top stroke average early in the season with a 76.63, while Knopik has managed a 77.50. True freshman Steffi Neisen has played solid golf for the Huskers with a 77.88 stroke average.

Dale McNamara Invitational
Host: Tulsa
Location: Owasso, Okla.
Course: Patriot Golf Club
Par/Yardage: 72/6,450

Tee Times (Central)
Monday, Oct. 11 (18) - 8 a.m.
Tuesday, Oct. 12 (18) - 8 a.m.
Wednesday, Oct. 13 (18) - 8 a.m.

Nebraska Lineup
Madeleine Sheils, Steffi Neisen, Kayla Knopik, TBA, TBA

Nebraska Individuals - TBA

Dale McNamara Invitational (16 Teams)
Kansas State, Kennesaw State, Long Beach State, Middle Tennessee State, Missouri, Nebraska, Oklahoma, Oklahoma State, Oral Roberts, SMU, Texas, Texas A&M-Corpus Christi, Tulsa, UALR, UNLV, Wichita State

Live Scoring: Golfstat.com

Knopik Leads Huskers with Career Best at Missouri
Kayla Knopik produced a career-best three-round total of 229 by firing a season-best 74 to lead Nebraska in the final round of the Johnie Imes Invitational.

Knopik, a junior from Papillion, Neb., led the Huskers at the 15-team tournament by tying for 36th with a three-round total of 229, one shot better than her previous career-best tournament total of 230 that she produced last season at the BYU Entrada Classic. Knopik, who has opened the season with eight consecutive rounds better than 80, managed solid rounds of 78, 77 and 74 on the par-72, 6,204-yard layout at The Club at Old Hawthorne.

"Kayla played solid golf in all three rounds," Nebraska Coach Robin Krapfl said. "I think she was happy with the way she played but not necessarily happy with the way she scored because she actually could have put up even better numbers. That is pretty encouraging because that was a challenging golf course."

Madeleine Sheils added a final-round 74 of her own to help the Huskers shoot a 309 team score on Tuesday, their best round of the 54-hole event. The junior from Boise, Idaho, closed the tournament in a tie for 45th (84-74-74-232).

Remy Molyneux, who made her first career start, tied for 78th (246). Junior Carolyn Schorgl closed in 81st (248), while freshman Steffi Neisen tied for 64th (238).

Oklahoma State captured the team title with one-under-par 863 through three rounds. The Cowgirls won the crown by 15 strokes over both Colorado and Oklahoma. The Buffaloes and Sooners tied at 878. Nebraska finished 15th at 943.

Cowgirls Courtney McKim and Victoria Park shared medalist honors by firing four-under-par scores of 212. Park's tournament included a final-round 65.

Sheils Fires Career-Best at Marilynn Smith/Sunflower Invite
Madeleine Sheils produced the best tournament finish of her career by tying for third while helping Nebraska to a fourth-place finish at the 12-team Marilynn Smith/Sunflower Invitational, Sept. 27-28.

Sheils, a junior from Boise, Idaho, matched her career-best three-round total on a par-72 course with a 223. Her tie for third surpassed her previous career-best tie for seventh at the 2010 Northern Migration in Florence, Ariz.

Freshman Steffi Neisen tied for 15th with a career-best 230 on the 6,279-yard layout of the Alvamar Country Club in Lawrence, Kan. Mary Kate Bird added a tie for 18th at 232, while junior Kayla Knopik tied for 23rd (78-78-77-233).

Bird, Sheils Return to Lead New Look Huskers
Nebraska's lone senior Mary Kate Bird returned to lead a young and relatively inexperienced Husker women's golf team into the 2010-11 season.

Bird, a three-year letterwinner from Kansas City, Mo., has competed in 72 rounds in the NU lineup and owns 11 career top-25 finishes, including a runner-up finish at the 2008 Chip-N Club Invite.

Bird is joined in a leadership role by junior Madeleine Sheils. Nebraska's top finisher at the 2010 Big 12 Championships, Sheils just missed All-Big 12 honors with her 11th-place showing. The Boise, Idaho, native's performance and confidence peaked at the end of a strong sophomore season.

Last year, Sheils competed in 31 rounds and posted a strong 76.35 stroke average, nearly seven strokes better than her rookie campaign in 2008-09. Her 76.35 represented the third-best stroke average by a sophomore in school history.

As a junior, Sheils will look for continued improvement on the course. The two-time NGCA Scholastic All-American will also continue her excellence in the classroom.

Knopik Hopes to Continue Climb in 2010-11
Nebraska native Kayla Knopik enjoyed a breakout 2010 spring season that concluded with her tie for 39th at the Big 12 Championships.

The junior from Papillion, Neb., is in her fourth season in the Nebraska women's golf program in 2010-11, after earning a spot in NU's starting five late last spring.

Knopik, who has continued to improve each season at Nebraska, made the most of her opportunity last season by notching a 78.22 stroke average over 18 rounds. Her average represented a 4.61-stroke per round improvement over her redshirt freshman campaign in 2008-09, when she played just six rounds.

She produced a career-best tie for 14th at the 2010 BYU at Entrada Classic with a career-best three-round score of 230.

After a solid summer that included a fifth-place finish at the Nebraska State Stroke Play Championship and a third-place showing at the Eastern Stroke Play, Knopik has shown that her game continues to improve. She owns NU's No. 2 stroke average (77.50) and has been the Huskers' most consistent scorer through the first eight rounds of the young season (79-79-78-78-77-78-77-74).

Schorgl Hoping for Breakout Season as Junior
Junior Carolyn Schorgl hopes to make an impact on the Nebraska lineup in her third season in the program in 2010-11. The Leawood, Kan., native has competed in 23 rounds in her first three years in the program, including an appearance in NU's top five at the Johnie Imes Invitational, Oct. 4-5.

Last year at the Chip-N Club Invitational, Schorgl fired a career-best 73 in the final round. At the 2008 Chip-N Club, she produced a career-best three-round total of 232, which was good for 33rd in her first collegiate event.

A solid performer in the classroom and the community, Schorgl is a four-time Big 12 Commissioner's Honor Roll selection and a recipient of a 2010 Nebraska Student-Athlete HERO Leadership Award.

Transfer Keiser Tries to Make Impact in Home State
Katie Keiser will try to make an immediate impact on Nebraska's lineup after transferring from Winthrop before the start of the 2010-11 season.

The Gothenburg, Neb., native spent her first two collegiate seasons at Winthrop University before joining the Husker program in the summer of 2010.

Keiser showed her abilities during the summer by finishing as the runner-up at the 2010 Nebraska State Stroke Play Championship on her home course in Gothenburg. Keiser (230) finished three shots back of former Husker JC Stevenson (227) in the 54-hole event. Current Husker teammate Kayla Knopik (239) added a fifth-place finish.

Keiser earned a lineup spot for the Huskers at the season-opening Chip-N Club Invitational and produced rounds of 79 and 83 in the rain-shortened event.

Freshmen Plan to Lay Foundation for the Future
A talented three-player freshman class hopes to lay the foundation for future success in the Husker program.

Steffi Neisen, New Prague, Minn. (New Prague)
Steffi Neisen, a newcomer from New Prague, Minn., could make the quickest impact on the Husker program. A four-time top-seven finisher in the state of Minnesota's largest class of high school golf (AAA), Neisen has earned a spot in Nebraska's top five in each of NU's first four tournaments.

A six-year varsity player at New Prague High School, Neisen was a five-time Missota Conference Player of the Year (2006, 2007, 2008, 2009, 2010), and a six-time all-conference selection.

Neisen posted NU's top finish with a tie for 29th (76-79-155) at the Chip-N Club Invitational, before tying for 15th (75-74-81-230) at the Marilynn Smith/Sunflower Invite. She settled for a tie for 64th (238) at the Johnie Imes Invitational.

Katelyn Wright, Incline Village, Nev. (Incline)
Fellow freshman Katelyn Wright comes to Nebraska as one of the most accomplished prep golfers in Husker history. A four-time Nevada High School state champion, she is just the second player in Nevada history to accomplish that feat. As a senior, she won the title by 26 strokes with a two-under-par 142 over 36 holes. In 2008, she won the crown by 28 strokes.

Wright was also a four-time qualifier for the Callaway Junior World Championships and a three-time member and two-time captain of the Junior America's Cup team.

An outstanding all-around athlete, Wright was also a two-time state champion in track and field, and a first-team all-state basketball selection as a point guard on Incline High School's Class 2A team.

Off the fields of competition, Wright was the Incline High School Student Body President in 2009-10, after serving as the junior class vice president in 2008-09.

Wright is a second generation Husker golfer, following in the footsteps of her mother, Shelly (Godeken) Wright, who was a two-time All-Big Eight selection at NU in 1983 and 1984.

Wright fired a 74 in the opening round of the Chip-N Club Invitational. She closed in a tie for 36th at her first collegiate event, playing outside of NU's lineup, before earning a lineup spot at the Marilynn Smith/Sunflower Invitational.

Remylee Molyneux, Thousand Oaks, Calif. (Oaks Christian)
A talented golfer out of California, Remylee Molyneux comes to Nebraska after a successful high school and junior career. The 2009 Tri-Valley League Champion and 2008 Ventura County Junior Golfer of the Year at Oaks Christian High School, Molyneux has been a consistent winner over the past several seasons. In fact, she was the medalist at 11 high school tournaments in 2008.

Molyneux won medalist honors in 11 of 15 high school tournaments as a junior in 2008, including the Tri-Valley League crown. She also assisted in coaching the middle school girls golf program at Oaks Christian.

She was the 2008 Ventura County Junior Golfer of the Year, winning four consecutive VCJGA tournaments in the summer of 2008, including the Ventura County State Stroke Play Championship. She fired a career-best 71 to win the Thousand Oaks Open on July 8, 2008. She also won a 15-18 California Junior Tour event at Buenaventura at the age of 15.

Molyneux matched fellow freshman Steffi Neisen for NU's top finish at the season-opening Chip-N Club Invitational. Playing as an individual outside of Nebraska's lineup, Molyneux fired rounds of 79 and 76 to tie for 29th. She competed as an individual at the Marilynn Smith/Sunflower Invite, before making her first career start at the Johnie Imes Invitational.

Huskers Continue to Set the Pace in the Classroom
Three Huskers captured NGCA Scholastic All-America honors in 2010, pushing Nebraska's nation-leading total to 57 since 1989. JC Stevenson became the third Husker in history to be a four-time NGCA Scholastic All-American, while fellow 2010 senior Charlotte Wendner added the second NGCA honor of her career.

Sophomore Madeleine Sheils claimed the second NGCA Scholastic All-America award of her career, putting her on track to join Stevenson, Jackie Beste and Allison Stewart as a four-time award winner.