Falcons Open Up 2016 Spring Season in Florida on Feb. 8-9

Monday, February 8

Lakewood Ranch, Fla.

All Day

Bowling Green State University

Women's Mid-American Match Play Challenge

Photo by: BGSU Strategic Communications

February 07, 2016 | Women's Golf

By: by Kevin Davis, Assistant Director for Athletic Communications

Scoring: Live Scoring at www.Golfstat.com
Bracket: Match Play Challenge Tournament Bracket (PDF)
Follow the Falcons: Twitter: @BGWomensGolf | Snapchat: BGSU_golf

Bowling Green, Ohio – The Bowling Green State University women's golf team will tee-off its 2016 spring season this week, Feb. 8-9, at the Women's Mid-American Match Play Challenge event hosted by the Falcons at the Lakewood Ranch Golf and Country Club in Lakewood Ranch, Fla.

The 2016 match play event has grown to 12 teams this season in Bowling Green, Kent State, Eastern Michigan, Akron, Northern Illinois, Western Michigan, FGCU, Ohio, Oakland, Dayton, Central Michigan and IPFW.

This year's tournament will consist of four rounds of play with both round one and the quarterfinal matches being played on Monday, Feb. 8, and the semifinals and finals being played on Tuesday, Feb. 9.

The event will be played at the par 72, 6,068-yards Royal Lakes Golf Course.

"The team and coaching staff are very excited to start the spring season next week. The winter practices have been going well and the players are focused on the goals we have set," stated head coach Stephanie Young. "It is a challenging schedule that the whole team is looking forward to while they strive for improvement each day."

The Falcons will send out a lineup of Hannah Lewis, Mikayla Baer, Lily Bartell, Erin Fahey and Fran Rodriguez for the spring opener, as four of the five BGSU golfers played in the event last year in which the Falcons finished in third-place overall as a team at 2-1 over the two days of play.

Entering her final spring season as a Falcon, Lewis was tied for the team lead with a stroke average of 77.67 over 15 rounds of play during the 2015 fall season. The senior tallied three top-25 place finishes over the fall slate, finishing in a tie for 15th at the 2015 Cardinal Classic, placing 16th at the 2015 Redbird Invitational and in a tie for 21st overall at the 2015 MAC Fall Preview. At last year's match play challenge, Lewis went 2-1-0 overall with wins over Alejandra Velasco of Akron and Anna Wilcoxson of Western Michigan.

Baer, who matched Lewis with a team-low stroke average of 77.67 over the fall schedule, carded a BGSU low round 71, - 1 under par, over the fall slate at the 2015 Redbird Invitational in which she finished in a tie for ninth-place overall with a 54-hole score of 228, +12. The junior also placed 14th at the 2015 Cardinal Classic and in a tie for 24th overall at the 2015 Rocket Classic. Last February, Baer went 0-3-0 overall at the 2015 Women's Mid-American Match Play event with narrow losses to Lois Schoof of Eastern Michigan and Chloe Lawrie of Western Michigan.

After playing in the match play event last year as an individual in which she went 3-0-0 overall with wins over Lesli Stolly of Akron, Taylor Ellett of Northern Illinois and Jessica McRae of Ohio, Bartell will return to the BGSU lineup this week. The senior concluded the fall slate with a stroke average of 78.13 over 15 rounds of play and recorded two top-25 place finishes overall. She placed in a tie for 17th overall at the 2015 Redbird Invitational and finished in a tie for 24th at the 2015 MAC Fall Preview.

Fahey will be making her spring debut on Feb. 8-9 at the match play challenge, as the freshman finished the fall season with a stroke average of 78.27 over 15 rounds of play. The freshman posted a 13th-place finish at the 2015 Rocket Classic and turned in a 24th-place showing at the 2015 Cardinal Classic. She carded a low round 72 over the final round of play at the 2015 Redbird Invitational in her Falcon debut to kick-off the fall slate.

Rodriguez will round out the Falcon lineup for the match play event on Monday and Tuesday. The junior played in all five events for the Falcons over the 2015 fall slate and posted a stroke average of 79.20 over her 15 rounds of play. She posted a team-best fifth-place finish at the 2015 Redbird Invitational with a 54-hole score of 224, +8. The Texas native also finished in a tie for 24th-place overall at both the 2015 Cardinal Classic and the 2015 Rocket Classic. Last year, Rodriguez went 2-1-0 overall with wins over Kylie Raines of Eastern Michigan and Laura Moutrey of Western Michigan.

"This year's event will feature an expanded 12 team field and as the host we are thrilled to see the growth and success of the match play format. We are truly grateful for the commitment that Lakewood Ranch Golf and Country Club has given to this event," continued Coach Young. "We could not do it without them and other key people who have partnered with us to make this tournament special for all the student-athletes. In this third year, the vision we had for this event is really taking shape and it's an honor to serve the sport in this way."

Each team of five players will compete in at least three matches, some will compete in four based on wins and losses.

The teams are seeded by their Golfstat rankings after the 2015 fall season. A list of the tournament seedings are below.

Live scoring for both days of play will be available at www.GolfStat.com.

###

Seed Team (Golfstat rank)