June 3, 2011

WACO, Texas - Valerie Sternebeck, a native of Pulheim, Germany, has signed a financial aid contract and will join the Baylor women's golf program as a graduate student in the fall. Sterneback, who graduated from the University of Koblenz-Rhein Ahr in 2011, will have one year of eligibility remaining (2011-12 season).

"I have always wanted to play for a college team on the highest level," Sternebeck said. "Baylor is one of the few universities in the United States to offer a master's program in sports management. Baylor offers me the opportunity to compete at the highest level with the support to combine both golf and my studies."

Sternebeck has been a member of Germany's Ladies Golf team since 2003 and led the squad to a fourth-place finish at the European Team Championship in 2010. She was also a member of the European Junior Ryder Cup team that won the trophy in 2004.

In 2011, she has posted a seventh-place finish at the Italian Ladies Championship and a 12th-place showing at the International German Championship. Sternebeck owns back-to-back top-five finishes in the German National Championships, finishing fifth in 2009 and third in 2010. Her 2008 season featured fifth-place finishes at the French Junior Ladies Championship, British Ladies Amateur and Swiss Ladies Amateur. She also finished third at both the French Junior Ladies and British Girls Match Play Championships in 2006.

She won the 2004 Vice Swedish Girls Championship and is a two-time German National champion (2002, 2004). Sternebeck joins Baylor's three-golfer Class of 2011 - Emma Carberry (Halisham, England), Hayley Davis (Ferndown, England) and Stani Schiavone (Bangor, Pa.).