Huskers Head to Vail for GolfWeek Challenge

The Nebraska women’s golf team heads for the mountains this week, as the Huskers continue their 2014 fall campaign at the GolfWeek Conference Challenge in Vail, Colo., Sept. 22-24.

Action begins for the Huskers on the Fazio Course at the Red Sky Golf Club with a 1:20 p.m. (CT) tee time on Monday, Sept. 22. The second round is set to begin on Tuesday, Sept. 23, beginning at 11 a.m. (CT), before the tournament concludes with 18 holes on Wednesday, Sept. 24, starting at 10:30 a.m. (CT).

Live scoring for the 54-hole event will be available at GolfStat.com.

A loaded 17-team field from conferences around the country will converge on the Fazio Course, which has been rated as the No. 1 course in Colorado.

Jordan Chael leads Nebraska to the GolfWeek Challenge after finishing as the top Husker at each of NU’s first two fall events. After finishing third at the Chip-N Club Invite, Chael tied for 30th in a strong 75-player field at the Minnesota Invitational, Sept. 15-16. The sophomore from Overland Park, Kan., carries a team-best 75.00 stroke average to Colorado.

Chael is joined by junior Cassie Deeg at the top of the Husker lineup. The Hugo, Minn., native carries a 75.83 stroke average through six fall rounds. Fellow junior Morgan Smejkal from Columbus, Neb., has added a 77.00 stroke average.

True freshman Audrey Judd has made an immediate impact on the NU lineup through the first two tournaments of her career. The Olathe, Kan., native has produced identical totals of 233 to provide consistent scores for the Huskers.

Junior Cassidy Stelzmiller will round out the Husker contingent in Colorado with her first lineup appearance of the year. Stelzmiller tied for 18th as Nebraska’s top returning finisher at the 2014 Big Ten Championships.

GolfWeek Conference Challenge
Location: Vail, Colo.
Course: Red Sky Golf Club (Fazio Course)
Par/Yardage: TBA/TBA
Monday, Sept. 22 - 1:20 p.m. (CT) (18 holes)
Tuesday, Sept. 23 - 11 a.m. (CT) (18 holes)
Wednesday, Sept. 24 - 10:30 a.m. (CT) (18 holes)

Nebraska Golfers
1. Jordan Chael
2. Cassie Deeg
3. Morgan Smejkal
4. Audrey Judd
5. Cassidy Stelzmiller

GolfWeek Conference Challenge (17 Teams)
Campbell, Colorado, Denver, Georgetown, Illinois State, Jacksonville State, Long Beach State, Louisville, Nebraska, New Mexico, Pepperdine, Stetson, TCU, Tennessee, Texas State, Toledo, UTSA

Live Scoring: GolfStat.com

Chael Leads Huskers in Minnesota
Sophomore Jordan Chael tied for 30th individually to help the Nebraska women’s golf team to a 12th-place finish at the 14-team Minnesota Invitational at the Minikahda Club on Tuesday.

Chael, a sophomore from Overland Park, Kan., was Nebraska’s top finisher at the Huskers’ second straight tournament to open the season. She produced a three-round total of 230 (77-75-78), while the Huskers finished at 929 (312-309-308).

True freshman Audrey Judd was Nebraska’s No. 2 finisher in Minnesota, closing the 54-hole event at 233 (78-76-79) in 45th place. Judd finished one stroke ahead of Husker junior Cassie Deeg, who managed a three-round score of 234 (78-80-76) to finish 46th.

Morgan Smejkal put four Huskers in the top 50 in the 75-player field with a 237 (84-78-75) to tie for 50th. The junior from Columbus, Neb., produced NU’s best individual effort of the final round with a three-over-par 75 on the 6,119-yard layout at Minikahda.

Sophomore Sarah Pravecek rounded out the Husker contingent in Minnesota in a tie for 71st at 246 (79-84-83).

East Carolina ran away with the team title with an impressive three-round total of 879. The Pirates fired rounds of 294, 287 and 298 to defeat runner-up Colorado (900) by 21 strokes. Kansas finished third at 905.

ECU’s Frida Gustafsson Spang dominated the field with a nine-under-par 207 over 54 holes. She won medalist honors with an eight-stroke victory over Minnesota’s Anna Laorr (215). Bertine Strauss from Texas, Martina Edberg from Cal State Fullerton and Sabrine Garrison from Minnesota all tied for third at 220, 13 strokes back of Gustafsson.

Chael, Deeg Finish in Top Five at Chip-N Club Invitational
Nebraska fired a final-round 290 to finish with a three-round total of 896 in third place at the Husker women’s golf team’s season-opening Chip-N Club Invitational at Wilderness Ridge Golf Course, Sept. 8-9.

Jordan Chael was NU’s top finisher at 220 (71-75-74). The sophomore from Overland Park, Kan., produced a career-best third-place finish, while her 220 was also a career-best, surpassing the 224 she fired at the 2013 Chip-N Club Invite.

Chael’s career performance placed her three strokes behind Ohio State’s Rio Watanabe (217) and two shots back of OSU’s Jan Chanpalangsri (218). Ohio State won the team title with a three-round total of 879, while Missouri took second (891).

Cassie Deeg tied a career-best with a final-round 69 to finish in a tie for fourth. It was Deeg’s second straight top-five finish at the Chip-N Club after winning medalist honors in 2013.

Nebraska, which also received strong rounds from Morgan Smejkal (73) and Audrey Judd (74), on its way to a third-place finish, climbed past Wichita State (900) in the final team standings.

Smejkal’s three-round score of 225 (76-76-73) was a career best, while her final-round 73 was also a collegiate best for the junior from Columbus, Neb. Smejkal finished in a tie for 13th place.

Junior Trio Leads Young Huskers into 2014-15
Cassie Deeg will be relied upon as a rock in the Nebraska lineup as a junior in 2014-15. A three-time Big Ten Golfer of the Week in 2013-14, Deeg produced Nebraska’s No. 2 stroke average (76.16) as a sophomore. Her average was the third-best by a sophomore in Nebraska history.

Her second season at NU included her first collegiate title at the season-opening Chip-N Club Invitational, when she shot a career-best three-under-par 213 at Wilderness Ridge. She added a tie for second with another three-under-par 213 at the Mountain View Collegiate at the end of March. She led Nebraska to team titles at both tournaments.

Deeg is joined as a leader to a young Husker lineup by fellow juniors Cassidy Stelzmiller and Morgan Smejkal. Stelzmiller came on strong during the 2014 spring campaign, producing a breakthrough performance at the Westbrook Spring Invitational before notching Nebraska’s No. 2 finish at the Big Ten Tournament.

After earning just one lineup spot in the fall, the Placerville, Calif., native opened the spring with a career-best 216 with a trio of even-par rounds of 72. She led the Big Ten Tournament with another even-par 72 in the opening round, before slipping to a tie for 18th in the 72-player field at the French Lick Resort in Indiana.

Overall on the season, Stelzmiller’s 79.89 stroke average represented a 1.75 stroke per round improvement over her redshirt freshman season in 2012-13.  During the spring, she produced a 77.71 stroke average over 14 rounds, which was nearly four shots per round better than her previous spring, when she tied for 50th at the Big Ten Championships.

Smejkal trimmed 2.15 strokes per round off her average as a sophomore, finishing fifth among the Huskers with a 79.41 stroke average in 2013-14.

Smejkal, who tied for 55th in her first Big Ten Tournament appearance in 2014, earned spots in the NU lineup in seven of 11 events last season. Her tie for 55th matched her best individual tournament of the season, and Krapfl believes the best is yet to come for the junior from Columbus, Neb.

Smejkal also has been one of Nebraska’s top performers off the course. Last season, she was awarded the Beatrice Dierks Rohman Scholarship and was an academic All-Big Ten performer for the second straight season. She also earned a prestigious Nebraska Student-Athlete HERO Leadership Award and a spot on the inaugural Tom Osborne Citizenship Team for her commitment to Nebraska’s Life Skills program.

Smejkal was joined on the academic All-Big Ten team by Deeg and Stelzmiller, while Deeg was also an inaugural member of the Tom Osborne Citizenship Team.

Chael Leads Husker Sophomores
Jordan Chael is the most experienced member of a three-player sophomore class. The second-year Husker from Overland Park, Kan., produced Nebraska’s No. 4 stroke average as a true freshman in 2013-14. In fact, her 77.67 ranked as the fourth-best stroke average by a Husker freshman in school history.

Chael opened with a ninth-place finish (71-76-77-224) to help Nebraska to the 2013 Chip-N Club Invitational team title. She added a tie for 18th the following week at the Minnesota Invitational. The experience Chael gained from earning lineup spots in every tournament for the Huskers should be invaluable in 2014-15.

Fellow true sophomore Sarah Pravecek could be poised to make the biggest impact of the young Huskers. Pravecek joined the NU roster for the second semester of her freshman season in 2013-14, after competing at Nebraska-Omaha in the fall of 2013. The Omaha native pushed the Huskers for lineup spots in the spring. She competed as an individual at the Mountain View Collegiate in late-March, tying for 35th individually. She fired a career-best two-under-par 70 in the final round to finish with a 75.33 stroke average over three rounds at NU in 2013-14.

Third-year sophomore Yoorim Kang also hopes to push for action. The Canadian earned her first career lineup spot at the Marilynn Smith/Sunflower Invitational in the fall of 2013, finishing in a tie for 61st. That followed a solid tie for 34th with a season-best 239 at the Chip-N Club Invite.

Freshmen Gillman, Judd Push to Make Impact
A pair of talented freshmen in Emily Gillman and Audrey Judd are pushing to replace the voids left by departed seniors Katelyn Wright and Steffi Neisen. Judd could be a leading contender to make an instant impact in the Husker lineup.

The freshman from Olathe, Kan., was ranked No. 70 in the GolfWeek/Sagarin Class of 2014. The two-time Kansas Class 6A state champion also finished 21st at the Trusted Choice Big “I” National Championship in 2012.

Gillman was one of the top players in the state of Texas at traditional power Austin Lake Travis. Ranked No. 100 in the GolfWeek/Sagarin ratings for the Class of 2014, Gillman was a Class 5A all-stater who helped Lake Travis to top-three state team finishes all four years.

Huskers Face Challenging 2014-15 Schedule
The Huskers opened the season at the Chip-N Club Invitational in Lincoln, Sept. 8-9. The Big Red finished third with a solid three-round score of 896, trailing only Ohio State and Missouri at the 2014 Chip-N Club. The Huskers won the tournament title in 2013 with a record-setting total of 874.

The Huskers hit the road for the first time at the Minnesota Invitational, Sept. 15-16, before heading to Vail, Colo., for the GolfWeek Conference Challenge, Sept. 22-24. Nebraska returns to Colorado for the Pioneer Invite in Denver, Oct. 10-12, before closing the fall at the Rainbow Wahine Invitational in Honolulu, Oct. 21-23.

NU opens the spring season at the Westbrook Invite in Peoria, Ariz., Feb. 22-23, before returning to Arizona for the Clover Cup in Mesa, March 13-15. The Huskers play their third straight tournament in Arizona at the Mountain View Collegiate, March 20-21. Nebraska will try to defend its 2014 Mountain View Collegiate title.

The Huskers conclude the regular-season at the SMU/Dallas Athletic Club Invitational, April 10-11, before heading to The Fort Golf Resort in Indianapolis for the 2015 Big Ten Championships, April 24-26.

The Huskers hope to contend for their 12th NCAA Regional bid since 1994. NCAA Regional competitions will be held in San Antonio, Texas, South Bend, Ind., Raleigh, N.C., and St. George, Utah, May 7-9, before The Concession Club in Bradenton, Fla., hosts a new format for the 2015 NCAA Championships, May 22-27.

Huskers Continue to Set the Pace in the Classroom
Nebraska leads the nation with 65 WGCA Scholastic All-Americans since 1989.  Steffi Neisen capped her impressive career as a Husker student-athlete by claiming her fourth consecutive WGCA Scholastic All-America award in 2014. She was also a three-time Big Ten Sportsmanship Award winner.

Cassidy Stelzmiller added a WGCA Scholastic All-America award in 2013. Stelzmiller, who was a Big Ten Distinguished Scholar in 2013, joined Deeg, Morgan Smejkal, Yoorim Kang and Neisen in earning academic All-Big Ten honors in 2014.

Overall, Nebraska owns one of the richest academic traditions in all of collegiate sports with a nation-leading 314 CoSIDA Academic All-Americans across all teams and all sports. NU also leads the nation with 17 NCAA Top Ten Award winners.