Baylor

Lady Bears Head South for UCF Challenge

Women's Golf 2/28/2010 12:00:00 AM

Feb. 28, 2010

SORRENTO, Fla. - After opening its spring season with a sixth-place finish in Puerto Rico, the Baylor women's golf team will head south again March 1-2 for the UCF Challenge at RedTail.

The par-72, 6,301-yard RedTail Golf Club will host the 54-hole tournament which will feature a 36-hole shotgun start Monday and the final 18 holes Tuesday. Live scoring will be available at GolfStat.com.

The fourth-year event consists of a highly competitive tournament field that includes eight 2009 NCAA Regional participants and 16 teams ranked among the top 100 nationally by Golfstat. In addition to No. 55 Baylor and host UCF, the 17-team tournament field includes No. 65 Augusta State, No. 63 Coastal Carolina, No. 78 College of Charleston, No. 67 East Carolina, No. 47 Furman, No. 60 Georgia State, No. 58 Indiana, No. 94 Miami, No. 53 Nebraska, No. 71 Oklahoma, No. 122 SMU, No. 24 Texas A&M, No. 73 UNC Greensboro, No. 86 USF and No. 93 UTSA.

"The team is coming off a two-week practice period that has been very focused and we feel we are well prepared for the UCF Challenge," Baylor head women's golf coach Sylvia Ferdon said.

With a shoulder injury sidelining junior Morgan Chambers, Ferdon has adjusted her lineup for the first time since the season-opening Ptarmigan Ram Fall Classic. Upperclassmen Hannah Burke and Lene Hafsten-Morch anchors a young Baylor lineup at UCF that will also include sophomores Chelsey Cothran and Jaclyn Jansen and freshmen Karianne Hillaas and Melanie White.

Burke continues lead the Lady Bears in rounds counted (16.0), stroke average (72.38), score vs. par (0.63), rounds of par or better (eight), top-10 (three), top-15 (five) and top-25 (five) finishes. The senior opened the spring with a career-low 4-under 212 to finish tied for second at the Lady Puerto Rico Classic.

Hillaas, a mid-year addition to the Lady Bears, will make her Baylor debut at the UCF Challenge. White, competing as an individual, will play in her first tournament since finishing tied for 34th at the Ron Moore Women's Intercollegiate last fall.

"We are, again, teeing it up against a very strong field," Ferdon said. "If the conditions are sunny and calm, I would like to see us produce very low scores and get that out of our systems once and for all because we have the talent to do it."

After the 2010 UCF Challenge at Red Tail, the Baylor Lady Bears will participate in the UNLV Spring Invitational March 8-10 in Boulder City, Nev.

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