Sooners Aim for Big 12 Title

April 24, 2008

2008 Big 12 Women's Golf Championship
Date	April 25-27, 2008
Location	Stillwater, Okla.
Start Time	9 a.m. each day
Course	Karsten Creek
Par/Yards	72/6,210
Host	Oklahoma State University
Live Stats	Golfstat Live Scoring
Tournament Info	Tournament Notes (PDF)

NORMAN, Okla. -- After wrapping up the regular season with a home victory at the Susie Maxwell Berning Classic, its third win of the season, the No. 41 University of Oklahoma women's golf team heads to Stillwater, Okla., to begin postseason play at the Big 12 Championship April 25-27. The Sooners, ranked fourth in the Big 12, look to bring home the title at Karsten Creek, a par-72 course measuring 6,210 yards.

"We definitely expect to contend for the championship," OU head coach Carol Ludvigson said. "Our goal is to put ourselves in that position. Playing under pressure at the end, our golfers have really stepped up and seen that they can do it. Their expectations are very high."

Holding the No. 1 spot in the OU lineup is Susie Maxwell co-medalist Kendall Dye. The junior from Edmond, Okla., has 11 career top-20 finishes to go along with her first win. Dye's career stroke average of 76.93 ranks fourth in school history. She hopes to lead her team to victory at Karsten Creek.

"We've been working hard all season long and are prepared and ready for postseason," Dye said. "It's just a matter of us believing in ourselves and executing the shots. The Big 12 Championship is up for grabs and we are going to put up a strong fight in Stillwater this weekend."

Kelly Jacques is next in the lineup after finishing in seventh place at the Susie Maxwell Berning Classic. The senior from Longmont, Colo., is one of the most successful and most consistent players in OU history. Jacques has 19 career top-20 finishes and 10 top-10 outings as a Sooner. She is No. 2 in school history with a 76.86 career stroke average.

Senior Heather Wright, who made a courageous effort to play the final two rounds of the Susie Maxwell with a wrist injury, is in the No. 3 spot for the Sooners this weekend. Wright has eight career top-20 finishes, including a career-best third-place showing at this year's MountainView Collegiate in Tucson, Ariz. She also carded the Sooners' low round of the season with a 69 on the opening 18 in Tucson.

Ellen Mueller is undoubtedly one of the best freshmen in Oklahoma women's golf history. She will be playing from the fourth spot in the lineup. Mueller has started all nine tournaments for the Sooners this season, accumulating five top-25 finishes. She has averaged 76.80 over her 25 rounds, which would rank as the best OU career average if she met the minimum number of rounds played requirement.

Sophomore Ryanne Elmer holds the fifth and final spot for OU this weekend. She has come on strong as of late, earning the right to play in the Sooners' biggest tournament of the year.

"Ryanne has really stepped up and handled the pressure," Ludvigson said. "She had a couple pressure points that she could have crumbled under, but she didn't. I feel really good about her being in the lineup. She's really good for our dynamic of our team. She relaxes everyone, and you need that. Especially at this time of year."

The Big 12 Championship host, Oklahoma State, is rated as the top team in the conference. The Cowgirls are ranked ninth in the country in the GolfWeek/Sagarin performance index, followed by Texas (21), Texas A&M (22), OU (41), Texas Tech (47), Missouri (50), Nebraska (54), Iowa State (55), Kansas (60), Colorado (63), Kansas State (78) and Baylor (94).

"Anything can happen at the Big 12 Championship, and especially this time of year," Coach Ludvigson said. "You get a little bit of momentum, and all five of our kids feel really good. So we expect to contend and walk away with a championship, and hopefully walk away with even an individual champion as well."

Ludvigson described the postseason in golf as similar to March Madness in basketball, with any team having the ability to win.

"A lot of times at this time of the year, teams put more pressure on themselves because some of them are right on the bubble to get into regionals," Ludvigson said. "We've been in that situation, knowing that we had to play well, but we're not in that situation this time. They can go and just play the golf course. That's our mentality. We're competing with the golf course. We just want to be in the last group on the last day, getting a chance to walk away with the trophy."

The Big 12 Championship begins Friday at 9 a.m. CDT. The Sooners will start on the back nine with Elmer teeing off at 9:50 a.m. Mueller will follow at 10:00, Wright at 10:10, Jacques at 10:20, and Dye at 10:30.

"All five of the girls feel really good about each other and very strong," Ludvigson said. "They are all such hard workers. We just want to play one hole at a time. Our biggest goal is that when we walk on Karsten, we want to try to make that our own golf course. That's the biggest key."

OU won the Big 12 Championship in 2000, and has finished in the top five in seven out of the 11 tournaments since the conference was formed in 1996.

Women's Golf Notes

WINNING WAYS
The Sooners have won three tournaments this season, including their home tournament, the Susie Maxwell Berning Classic. The three tournament championships ties the school record for most victories in a single season. It has happened just three other times in school history (1981, 1986 and 2003). The team title at the Susie Maxwell was the Sooners' first win at home since 2004.

DYE ROLLS A "W"
Junior Kendall Dye won co-medalist honors at the Susie Maxwell Berning Classic with a 2-under-par score of 214, marking the first individual championship of her career. She joined elite company with the title, becoming just the 28th medalist in OU history and the first since Lisa Meldrum in 2004.

SCHOOL RECORD
The Sooners carded a team score of 287 in the first round of the MountainView Collegiate March 29-30 in Tucson, Ariz., tying the school record for low 18 holes set in 1994 at the Chris Johnson Invitational.

JACQUES AMONG SOONER GREATS
Senior Kelly Jacques has already left her mark in the OU history books, and still has a couple tournaments left to add to her legacy. She ranks second in school history with a 76.86 career stroke average, trailing only Lisa Meldrum (75.14). Jacques' 2007-08 average of 75.32 is also within range of Meldrum's single-season record (74.94). The First Team All-Big 12 selection from a year ago has 19 career top-20 finishes, 10 top-10 performances and three top fives.

FRESHMAN PHENOM
Not many freshmen can say they played in every single event their first year. But not many freshmen are as good as OU's Ellen Mueller. Not only has Mueller started in the lineup in each of OU's tournaments this season, but she has done so with five top-25 performances, two top 10s and a tie for second. Her 76.80 scoring average is one of the best in OU freshman history.

WRIGHT ON TARGET
Heather Wright, a senior from Houston, Texas, has had one of the most productive careers in program history. Wright boasts a 77.96 career scoring average over 101 rounds, seventh all-time at OU. She posted the Sooners' low round of the season at the MountainView Collegiate in Tucson, Ariz., with a 69 on the opening 18. She went on to finish in third place in Tucson, a career-best performance. Wright has eight career top-20 finishes, three top-10s and two top fives.

University of Oklahoma Athletics

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