Huskers Open Spring at Kiawah Island

The Nebraska women's golf team opens its 2011 spring campaign at the Kiawah Island Intercollegiate in South Carolina Sunday, Feb. 20.

The three-day tournament includes 35 teams on the Oak Point and Cougar Point golf courses on Kiawah Island. The Huskers open the tournament on Sunday at 8:30 a.m. with 18 holes on the 5,907-yard, par-72 Cougar Point course. NU moves to the 6,001-yard, par-72 layout of the Oak Point course on Monday. The tournament concludes with the top 20 teams at Cougar Point on Tuesday, and the remaining teams at Oak Point.

Junior Madeleine Sheils leads Nebraska to South Carolina after posting a team-best 76.07 stroke average during the fall.

Freshman Steffi Neisen added NU's second-best stroke average (77.07) while producing a pair of top-15 tournament finishes.

Junior Kayla Knopik added a 77.86 stroke average during the spring as NU's most consistent scorer. The Papillion, Neb., native notched 79 or better in 13 of 14 rounds.

Nebraska will also look forward to the return of Mary Kate Bird. The senior produced a 78.00 stroke average in NU's first two tournaments, before missing the rest of the fall season with a medical issue. Bird is expected to be back and fully healthy as NU's most experienced golfer.

Junior Katie Keiser rounds out the Nebraska lineup after closing the fall with a career-best 230 at the Alamo Invitational, Oct. 31-Nov. 2. Freshmen Katelyn Wright and Remylee Molyneux will also look for strong starts to the their springs while playing as individuals at the Kiawah Island Intercollegiate.

Kiawah Island Intercollegiate
Location: Kiawah Island, S.C.
Courses: Oak Point (72/6,001) & Cougar Point (72/5,907)

Tee Times (Central)
Sunday, Feb. 20 (18) - 8:30 a.m.
Monday, Feb. 21 (18) - 8:30 a.m.
Tuesday, Feb. 22 (18) - 7:45 a.m. 

Nebraska Lineup
1. Madeleine Sheils
2. Steffi Neisen
3. Kayla Knopik
4. Mary Kate Bird
5. Katie Keiser

Nebraska Individuals
Katelyn Wright, Remylee Molyneux

Kiawah Island Intercollegiate Field (35 Teams)
Akron, Arkansas State, Bucknell, Campbell, Central Arkansas, Citadel, Charleston Southern, College of Charleston, Daytona State, Drake, Elon, Florida International, Houston Baptist, Iowa, Jacksonville State, James Madison, Longwood, Mercer, Middle Tennessee State, Miami, Morehead State, Nebraska, Newberry, Old Dominion, Oral Roberts, Presbyterian, Richmond, South Carolina State, Tennessee State, USC Upstate, Western Carolina, Wichita State, William & Mary, Winthrop, Wofford

Live Scoring: Golfstat.com

Young Huskers Hope to Continue Growth in Spring Season
Neisen, a native of New Prague, Minn., produced an impressive fall campaign by posting NU's second-best stroke average (77.07). Fellow freshmen Katelyn Wright and Remylee Molyneux also saw extensive time in Nebraska's fall lineup and will both be making the trip to South Carolina as individuals to open the spring season.

The Huskers produced their best score of the fall in their final tournament with a 914 at the Alamo Invitational, Oct. 31-Nov. 2, in San Antonio, Texas. Wright produced a breakout performance with a career-best 228, while Keiser, also a first-year player at Nebraska, added a career-best 230. The Gothenburg, Neb., native's final fall tournament included a career best 72 in the second round in Texas.

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 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
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 Continuing 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 season-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 produced NU's No. 3 stroke average (77.86) during the fall campaign.

Transfer Keiser Making Impact in Home State
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.

She closed the fall with the best tournament of her career at the Alamo Invite. Keiser erased 17 strokes off her previous career-best (247) with a three-round total of 230. She also fired a career-best 72 in the second round while tying for 38th.

Freshmen Plan to Lay Foundation for the Future
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 Invite, 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, before rebounding for a tie for ninth with a career-best 223 at the Dale McNamara Invitational.

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 was 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, a two-time All-Big Eight golfer (1983, 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. She also traveled to the Dale McNamara and Alamo invitationals as an individual. She tied for 32nd with a career-best 245 at the Alamo Invite.

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.

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. She was also in NU's top five at the Dale McNamara Invitational and the Alamo Invite.

Seven Huskers Earn Big 12 Commissioner's Honor Roll Spots
Seven members of the Nebraska women's golf team earned spots on the 2010 Big 12 Commissioner's Fall Honor Roll announced on Friday, Feb. 4.

Junior Madeleine Sheils headlined the Husker group of honorees by posting a perfect 4.0 grade-point average during the fall semester. Former Husker Charlotte Wendner, who was a major contributor for the Huskers on the course the past four seasons, also posted a perfect 4.0 GPA as a business administration major. The native of Bjarred, Sweden, is completing her degree. Senior Mary Kate Bird earned her sixth spot on the Big 12 Commissioner's Honor Roll, while juniors Carolyn Schorgl and Kayla Knopik joined Sheils as five-time honorees.

In addition to the experienced Huskers on the list, freshmen Steffi Neisen and Katelyn Wright claimed their first spots on the Big 12 Commissioner's Honor Roll. Neisen (New Prague, Minn.) and Wright (Incline Village, Nev.) were also major contributors on the course for the Huskers during the 2010 fall campaign.

In order to be recognized by the Big 12 Commissioner's Honor Roll, a student-athlete must record a 3.0 or better grade-point average the previous semester.

Overall, Nebraska had 358 student-athletes across 23 varsity sports recognized by the Big 12 for the fall semester, including 43 student-athletes with perfect 4.0 grade-point averages.

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.

Steffi Neisen, a newcomer from New Prague, Minn., has made 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 earned a spot in Nebraska's top five in each of NU's fall tournaments and owns NU's No. 2 stroke average (77.07).Katie Keiser is making an 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 Huskers in the summer of 2010. She 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.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.A young Husker lineup is planning to show continued development during the 2011 spring season. Juniors Madeleine Sheils, Kayla Knopik and Katie Keiser form the nucleus of Nebraska's top five, along with senior Mary Kate Bird and freshman Steffi Neisen.