Jan. 19, 2011
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By Leigh Torbin
UCFAthletics.com
ORLANDO, Fla. (UCFAthletics.com) - Golf Digest has selected the 2011 UCF Challenge as one of the Top 15 spring tournaments in the nation in its "Campus Insider" section.
This spring's fifth contesting of the UCF Challenge will be held from Feb. 13-15 at the RedTail Golf Club in Sorrento. The previous four years have seen many of the country's top teams and players including three eventual NCAA champions (Duke in 2007, USC in 2008 and Arizona State in 2009). The 2011 field includes two teams ranked in the final fall Golf Digest Top 25 in No. 15 Tulane and No. 22 Texas, along with several schools that received votes including Ole Miss, South Carolina and Georgia State.
UCF will be looking to improve upon last spring's sixth-place finish in the UCF Challenge, the Knights' best-ever placing in their lone home event's elite field. The Knights have a solid lineup returning in 2011 led by senior Katie Detlefsen (Eagan, Minn.), the 2010 LPGA Dinah Shore Trophy winner and UCF's first-ever ESPN The Magazine Academic All-American in women's golf. Four sophomores (Valentina Fontaine, Jordyn Hage, Sunny Harris and Carolin Pinegger) form the backbone of the Knights as Fontaine and Pinegger joined Detlefsen on the 2010 All-Conference USA squad. A pair of promising freshmen, Isabelle Bachtiar and Kaitlyn Price, complete the team. Just a freshman, Price was actually the Knights' top shooter this past fall with her 76.85 stroke average.
The Knights will play in two of these elite events this spring as UCF is scheduled to participate in the SunTrust Gator Women's Golf Invitational, March 6-7 in Gainesville which is ranked 10th in Golf Digest's assessment. First, the Knights will open up spring play with a dual-match at RedTail against No. 23 Kent State on January 29. The Golden Flashes finished no worse than third amongst good competition in either of their four fall tournaments.