Murray State University Athletics
Murray State
Greystone GC
Racers Win OVC Women's Golf Championship For 8th Time
4/25/2010 5:40:00 PM | Women's Golf
The Murray State Racers won the 2010 Ohio Valley Conference Women's Golf Championship Saturday and successfully defended their 2009 title at GreyStone GC in Dickson, Tenn.
The Racers won the 45-hole event that was rain delayed nearly three hours before it was called final.
MSU carded a 747 after rounds of 306-298-143, to win by five shots over Jacksonville State who had scores of 304-294-154=752.
Nine holes of the third round were played Friday evening in advance of the anticipated rain.
The Racers have now won an OVC-best eight league championships which all have come under the coach that started the program 17 years ago, Velvet Milkman. She was also named OVC Coach of the Year.
"I can't say enough about the determination and pride with which our team played in this event," Milkman said. "They were focused and represented Murray State in a great way. I'm very happy for our team because their hard work paid off."
Murray State's Megan McKinney and Joyce Trus were each named to the OVC All-Tournament team. McKinney finished second with scores of 76-72-37=185, while Trus was in fifth place with rounds of 78-75-34=187.
Morgan Cross and Andrea Downer finished in seventh place. Cross had scores of 77-75-36=188, while Downer carded rounds of 76-76-36=188. Caroline Lagerborg finished 18th with scores of 77-78-41=196.
Murray State has won OVC Championships in 1997 through 1999 and 2002 through 2004, plus the titles the last two seasons.
NOTES
The All-Tournament Team, which is comprised of the top five finishers, included Chelsea Harris of Austin Peay who was the medalist. Also on the team were Trus and McKinney of Murray State, April Emerson of Eastern Kentucky, Lucia Fernandez of Jacksonville State and Marisa Kamelgarn of Morehead State.
Racers head coach Velvet Milkman has been named OVC Coach of the Year eight times, the same as the number of titles MSU has won.
The 2010 championship marked the first time since 1995 that 54 holes were not completed.
The Racers came from six shots down after the second round to get the win with amazing stretch of nine holes in the third round. The Racers play the first six holes three-under, while JSU played them three-over, which allowed MSU to erase the deficit and tie the score with each team 25-over par for the event. The Racers finished the nine holes with a 143 and completed an 11-shot swing after JSU carded a 154.
OVC officials tried to get the final nine holes in Saturday but the weather wouldn't allow it. Because of impending rain moving into the area on Saturday, nine holes of the third and final round was played Friday. When the field came back out Saturday,the were able to play from 8 a.m. to 9:50 a.m. central time when play was halted because of thunderstorms. The tournament committee decided at 12:30 p.m. to call the event with 45-hole scores standing as final.
The Racers' OVC championship marks the fourth for the Murray State Athletics program in the 2009-10 school year. MSU women's soccer, men's basketball, rifle and now women's golf have all advanced to NCAA competition.
Murray State now waits until Monday to find out their NCAA Championship assignment. Last spring, the Racers competed in the regional at Ohio State's Scarlet Course in Columbus, Ohio.
Click here for the NCAA Women's Golf Championship page. http://www.ncaa.com/sports/w-golf/champpage/w-golf-div1-index.html
The NCAA Women's Golf Championship will have regional play May 6-8. The East Regional will be played at Ironwood Country Club in Greenville, North Carolina and hosted by East Carolina University. The West Regional is at Stanford Golf Course in Stanford, Calif., and hosted by Stanford University with the Central Regional played in Bloomington, Ill., at Otter Creek GC and hosted by Indiana University. The finals will be played May 18-21 at the Country Club of Landfall in Wilmington, N.C. and hosted by University of North Carolina, Wilmington.
The Racers finished 20th in the field of 21 teams at the 2009 NCAA Central Regional at Ohio State's Scarlet Course in Columbus, Ohio with rounds of 322-327-341=990. MSU has four of their five players from the 2009 team going in 2010 including, Andrea Downer, Morgan Cross, Megan McKinney and Joyce Trus.
