ROCKWALL, Texas – Midwestern State is on a roll as it enters the Lone Star Conference Championship at Rockwall Golf & Athletic Club, which begins Monday with stroke play and concludes with medal match play on Wednesday. The Mustangs have lifted the trophy at their last two tournaments.
Six LSC women's teams hold spots among the top 50 NCAA Division II teams in the latest Scoreboard rankings, led by Dallas Baptist at No. 2. The Patriots are the defending champions at the LSC Championship. UT Tyler is No. 7 followed by St. Mary's (16), Midwestern State (23), West Texas A&M (27), and Angelo State (44).
Midwestern State is No. 24 in the Mizuno WGCA Coaches Poll announced on Friday. The Mustangs are No. 7 in the West Region Rankings.
Dallas Baptist is No. 1 in the West Region and UT Tyler is No. 2 in the region. St. Mary's is ranked No. 4 and West Texas A&M is ranked No. 8 in the West Region. Lubbock Christian checks in at No. 14, which is just ahead of Texas A&M International at No. 15 in the region.
One week after winning the Hardscrabble Invitational in Fort Smith, Arkansas, the Mustangs claimed the title at the Lamar Cardinal Challenge.
Midwestern State posted the lowest score in all three rounds at Beaumont Country Club and won by 21 strokes.
Mary Kerr won the individual title, defeating her teammate Romane Lacoste by three strokes.
Kerr shot 6-over 222 and won her first individual trophy after finishing as the runner-up at the Hardscrabble Invitational. The sophomore from Friendswood, Texas, finished ninth at the 93-player Rattler Invitational at Dominion Country Club in San Antonio in February, and she was 14th in an 80-player field at the Southern Invite in Spring, Texas.
Lacoste shot 3-over 75 in the final round in Beaumont to finish as the runner-up at 9-over, coming off a third-place finish at Hardscrabble. It was the third consecutive top-10 result for the junior from France, and she has four straight top 15 results. The junior from France finished seventh in San Antonio and was 12th at Southern Invite.
Alli Reily finished in a three-way tie for third place at 11-over after shooting 9-over 81 in the final round at the Lamar Cardinal Invitational. Reily enjoyed her third straight top-10 finish. The senior from Pottsboro, Texas, was fifth at the Rattler Invitational and finished sixth at Hardscrabble.
Kodi Nolen, a senior from Midlothian, Texas, finished third in an 82-player field at the WT Fall Invitational to start the year for the Mustangs, and she finished among the top 10 in her last two appearances. Nolen was fifth at Hardscrabble and sixth at Cardinal Challenge.
Freshman Emme Darnold placed eighth in Beaumont two weeks ago for her second top-10 result in maroon & gold. Darnold made her MSU debut at WT Fall Invitational and finished in 10th place.
Last year in the LSC Championship at Rockwall Golf & Athletic Club, the Mustangs had three individuals in the Top 10 on the way to placing third in the stroke play portion of the event, as MSU logged scores of 293, 294, and 300 for a cumulative 23-over, 54-hole total of 887.
Midwestern finished behind West Texas A&M (872/+8) and St. Mary's (885/+21), and ahead of Dallas Baptist (893/+29).
Reily finished in an eighth-place tie last year at 6-over, and Madison Wert tied for 10th at 7-over.
St. Mary's staved off the Mustangs in the semifinals last year, winning in medal match play 3-2.
Wert built a five-stroke lead early over Sabree Lefebvre, then held on to win by three strokes with a 6-over 78.
Reily was sensational, carding a team-best six birdies on her way to a 2-under 70, but was upstaged by St. Mary's Libby Kilbride, who went bogey free with three birdies to win by a single stroke with a score of 69.
Savannah Dupre, who claimed LSC individual medalist honors, claimed a nine-stroke win over Nolen. Dupre fired an even-par 72.
Rockwall Golf & Athletic Club is located along the banks of Lake Ray Hubbard and features rolling fairways and Bermuda grass greens. The course was designed by Ralph Plummer, who also worked on the course at Wichita Falls Country Club. Plummer designed, built or reworked 86 golf courses, primarily in Texas.
The forecast for Monday is mostly cloudy, breezy and warm with winds from the south at 15 mph and a high temperature of 85 degrees. Tuesday is expected to be breezy and humid with intervals of clouds and sunshine with a high temperature of 80 degrees and south winds at 15-20 mph. Wednesday is expected to be cooler with a high temperature of 73 degrees and there is nearly a 90 percent chance of rain with possibly severe thunderstorms.
MIDWESTERN STATE LINEUP
1. Mary Kerr
2. Alli Reily
3. Romane Lacoste
4. Kodi Nolen
5. Emme Darnold
SUB Madison Wert
-- MSUMustangs.com --
