Feb. 4, 2012

Wildcat Invitational Live Scoring

The Oregon State women's golf team opens its spring season Sunday through Tuesday at the 15-team Wildcat Invitational in Tucson, Arizona after a successful fall campaign that saw the Beavers post two top-five finishes.

FIRST EVENT OF THE SPRING: The Wildcat Invitational is a three-day, 54-hole tournament that is played at the-par-72, 6,250-yard Golf Club at Vistoso. The spring's first tourney includes four teams ranked in the top-25 in the nation, including No. 1 UCLA and No. 8 Arizona State, according to the most recent golfstat.com rankings.

"The team has been preparing since January 11 and they were committed to staying prepared on their own over the winter break," Oregon State head coach Risë Alexander said. "I definitely see that they were working on their game over the break and came back ready to play in the spring. One advantage I see for us next week is that four out of our five players played the course (Golf Club at Vistoso) last year. Only Anica (Yoo), a freshman, has not seen this golf course. That experience allows us to make more informed course management decisions both as players and coaches."

THE FIELD: Oregon State, Arizona, Arizona State, Colorado, Denver, Northern Arizona, New Mexico, New Mexico State, North Texas, Portland State, San Diego State, Stanford, UCLA, UNLV, Washington State.

BEAVERS' LINEUP: Alexander and assistant coach Kailin Downs will go with a lineup of senior Whitney French, junior Rachael Fischer, sophomores Seshia Telles and Lauren Sewell and freshman Anica Yoo.

"In our four qualifying rounds for the Arizona event, in spite of the weather, we saw some excellent scores and creative course management," Alexander said. "In particular Rachael Fischer has improved and broke into the line-up for the first time this year. Rachael is a junior in engineering and a very-disciplined player and student. She has great tempo and rhythm in her swing and her short game, which has transferred into her ability to score on the course. As seniors, both Elyse (Okada) and Whitney have taken on very important roles as team leaders. They have taken seriously their responsibility to hold their teammates accountable on and off the course. We as coaches appreciate all they are doing to make this team a better more committed team. They both lead by example and aren't afraid to call someone out if they aren't giving 100 percent. Our team chemistry is excellent and everyone respects each other."

LOOKING BACK: Oregon State finished 15th at last season's Wildcat Invitational with a 96-over 320-315-325--960 in the opening tournament of the spring. French led the Beavers with a 16-over 78-74-80--232 to finish in a tie for 38th, while Sewell finished in a tie for 40th with a 17-over 77-76-80--233. Telles shot a team-best 79 in the final round, under extremely windy conditions, to finish tied for 66th at 26-over 80-83-79--242 and Fischer shot a 41-over 89-82-86--257 in her first Oregon State appearance after transferring from the University of Portland.

BATTLING THE WEATHER: The Beavers had to battle inclement weather in Corvallis this winter that included snow and rain in the Willamette Valley so they haven't been able to practice outside as much as schools they'll compete against in Arizona. But Alexander say the weather conditions as more of a beneficial factor in regards to how the team was practicing.

"Actually the flooding may have helped us," she said. "We were able to play other golf courses that the team hadn't seen before because Trysting Tree was unplayable. And we were able to use many areas of the course at Trysting in practice. That allowed us to simulate on-course situations instead of just being on the driving range or the practice putting green. Not to mention that we have had the whole place (Trysting) to ourselves for the past two weeks. So really the flooding for us gave us an unexpected opportunity to practice as we play. We were only inside practicing for two days, which under the circumstances is amazing."

FALL STATISTICS: Oregon State competed in four fall tournaments and opened the season with back-to-back fifth place finishes at the WSU Cougar Cup in Pullman, Wash., and the Edean Ihlanfeldt Invitational in Sammamish, Wash. The Beavers also finished 14th at the Stanford Intercollegiate in Stanford, Calif., and 21st at the very-competitive Pac-12/SEC Challenge in Knoxville, Tenn.

FALL STATISTICS: French, Telles, Sewell and Yoo played in all four tournaments and Sewell led the Beavers with a 75.58 scoring average. Yoo opened her collegiate career with the second-best average on the team at 75.83, while Telles was third at 76.00 and French was fourth at 76.17. Fischer competed in one fall tournament, the WSU Cougar Cup as an individual, and finished with a 34-over 84-87-79--250.

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