Huskers Travel to BYU Entrada Classic

The Nebraska women's golf team journeys to St. George, Utah, for the BYU Entrada Classic, Monday, March 21 and Tuesday, March 22.

The 15-team tournament field will tee off on the Entrada at Snow Canyon Country Club course on Monday morning, following Sunday's practice round. The teams will play 36 holes on Monday, followed by a final round on Tuesday.

Mary Kate Bird leads the Huskers to BYU after posting her second straight top-20 finish to open the spring with a 19th-place showing at UNLV, March 7-9. The senior from Kansas City, Mo., fired a season-best one-under-par 71 in the final round to fuel a strong closing performance for the Huskers in Nevada. She ended the 54-hole event with a season-best three-round total of 220.

Junior Kayla Knopik added a career-best 72 in the final round to produce a career-best three-round score of 227 to tie for 40th.

Freshmen Steffi Neisen and Katelyn Wright both added career-best 73s on the final day as well, while juniors Madeleine Sheils and Katie Keiser each added 77s for the Huskers on the final day.

Nebraska closed the tournament with a season-best 293, which matched BYU's final-round score at UNLV. The Cougars took second in the 15-team field with an 858 overall, while NU finished 11th at 911. BYU's Kelsey Vines won the individual title with a 10-under-par 206 that included an opening-round 66.

The 15-team field at Snow Canyon includes Big 12 foes Kansas State and Oklahoma State and future Big Ten Conference foes Illinois and Wisconsin.

BYU Entrada Classic
Location: St. George, Utah
Course: Entrada at Snow Canyon
Par/Yardage: 72/TBA

Tee Times (Central)
Monday, March 21 (36) - 9:30 a.m.
Tuesday, March 22 (18) - 9:30 a.m.

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

Nebraska Individual
Katie Keiser

BYU Entrada Classic Field (15 Teams)
BYU, Colorado State, Illinois, Kansas State, New Mexico State, Nebraska, Oklahoma State, SMU, Southern Utah, UTSA, Texas State, Tulsa, Weber State, Wisconsin, Wyoming

Live Scoring: Golfstat.com 

Bird Captures Second Straight Top 20 Finish at UNLV
Mary Kate Bird fired a season-best 71 to lead the Nebraska women's golf team to a season-best 293 in the final round of the UNLV Spring Invitational on March 9.

Bird, a senior from Kansas City, Mo., used her one-under-par final round to finish 19th with a three-round total of 220 (73-76-71) on the 6,244-yard, par-72 layout at the Boulder Creek Golf Course.

Bird's strong effort helped NU climb into a tie for 11th in the final standings in the 15-team tournament. The Huskers closed with their second-best team score of the season (911) despite an opening round 314, which left them in 15th.

The Huskers began to rebound with a 304 in the second round, before putting together their best round of the season with a five-over-par 293. Pepperdine ran away with the team title with a 20-under-par 844 for the tournament. BYU finished second at 858.

In addition to Bird's season-best 71, junior Kayla Knopik added a career-best 72 to finish in a tie for 40th with a career-best 54-hole total of 227. Freshman Steffi Neisen matched her career-best with a 73 to close with a three-round total of 234 to finish in a tie for 56th.

Fellow freshman Katelyn Wright, a Nevada native, added a career-best 73 of her own while playing as an individual outside of the NU lineup. Wright finished in a tie for 52nd at 232.

Juniors Madeleine Shiels and Katie Keiser eached closed with final round 77s to complete the NU contingent. Sheils finished in a tie for 49th (231), while Keiser tied for 63rd (238).

BYU's Kelsey Vines (66-70-70) and Pepperdine's Danielle Kang (71-69-66) each played three impressive rounds to finish atop the individual standings at 206.

Bird Flying High in Early Spring Tournaments
Nebraska senior Mary Kate Bird has returned from an illness that kept her out of NU's final three fall tournaments to lead the Huskers during the spring. Bird owns a pair of top-20 finishes already this spring and has posted six scores of 76 or better through the first two tournaments.

Bird's spring stroke average of 73.83 has helped trim her team-leading stroke average to 75.72 on the season. 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, Sheils Return to Lead New Look Huskers
Mary Kate Bird, a three-year letterwinner from Kansas City, Mo., has competed in 78 rounds in the NU lineup and owns 13 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 looks 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
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.

Knopik owns NU's No. 4 stroke average with a 77.55 this season, as she continues to shave strokes off her game. She is coming off the best three-round tournament score of her career with a 227 that included a career-best 72 in the final round of the UNLV Spring Invitational. In six spring rounds, Knopik has posted a 76.83 average.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.

Transfer Keiser Making Impact in Home State
Katie Keiser has earned a lineup spot in four tournaments for the Huskers this season, including the first two tournaments of the spring at the Kiawah Island Intercollegiate and the UNLV Spring Invitational.

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.

Keiser carries Nebraska's fifth-best stroke average on the season at 79.79, including a 79.67 average over six spring rounds.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. 3 stroke average (77.20), including a 77.50 over six spring rounds.

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. She added a tie for 51st (233) at the Alamo Invite to close the fall, before opening the spring with a tie for 46th (231) at the Kiawah Island Intercollegiate.

After a rough start at the UNLV Spring Invitational when she posted an 83 in the opening round, Neisen bounced back with a pair of strong rounds that included a career-best matching 73 in the final round.

Fellow freshman Katelyn Wright came 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.

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.

Wright continues to cut strokes off her game in her second semester as a collegian and is coming off a career-best three-round tournament score of 232 at the UNLV Spring Invitational. Playing as individual in her home state, Wright closed the 54-hole event with a career-best 73 in the final round to finish in a tie for 52nd. Her performance at UNLV helped earn her a lineup spot at the BYU at Entrada Classic, March 21-22.

A talented golfer out of California, Remylee Molyneux came 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 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
Junior Madeleine Sheils posted a perfect 4.0 GPA during the fall semester. Former Husker Charlotte Wendner also registered a perfect 4.0 GPA as a business administration major. 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.

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.

Seven members of the Nebraska women's golf team earned spots on the 2010 Big 12 Commissioner's Fall Honor Roll announced on Feb. 4.Nebraska native Kayla Knopik enjoyed a breakout 2010 spring season that concluded with her tie for 39th at the Big 12 Championships.