March 19, 2009
ORLANDO, Fla. - The UCF women's golf team will return to action on Friday when the Knights open play at the Betsy Rawls Longhorn Invitational at the 6,324-yard par-72 University of Texas Golf Club in Austin, Texas.
The Knights have not shied away from facing the nation's top teams and this week's event will be no exception. Although ranked No. 42 in the nation, UCF is just the 10th-highest ranked team in the field of 17. The event features No. 1 Arizona State, No. 9 Duke, No. 13 Vanderbilt, No. 14 Purdue and No. 20 Arizona, all of which also took part in the UCF Challenge two weeks ago, an event which featured 13 of the nation's Top 20 teams.
Amongst the schools UCF will face this weekend is No. 56 Tulsa, giving the Knights a glimpse at the competition which waits April 12-14 when the Golden Hurricane hosts the Conference USA Championship. UCF is 2-0 this spring against league foes, having comfortably topped SMU and Marshall in the Edwin Watts / Kiawah Island Classic, Feb. 22-24.
So far this spring, senior Stephanie Connelly (Pasadena, Md.) and freshman Elisa Aoki (Bradenton, Fla.) have consistently been the top two shooters for UCF. The two tied atop the Knights' leader board in the recent UCF Challenge with matching scores of 224. Both also landed Top 10 overall finishes in a massive field of 215 golfers at the spring season-opening Kiawah Island Classic. Connelly finished with a 221 while Aoki fired a 222.
Rounding out the UCF lineup this weekend are Jessy Tang (Miami, Fla.), Mayule Tomimbang (Kissimmee, Fla.) and Victoria Tomko (Lontzen, Belgium).
This weekend's event in Austin will feature single rounds of 18 holes on Friday, Saturday and Sunday morning.
For the latest news on the Knights, log on to UCFAthletics.com - the official site for UCF varsity sports. The site, which also contains ticket and Golden Knights Club donor information, is also the home of UCF's new online apparel store. Also visit UCFPhotos.com, the exclusive fan source for UCF action sports pictures.