Sept. 9, 2011
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By Brandon Naidus
UCFAthletics.com
ORLANDO, Fla. (UCFAthletics.com) - The No. 25 UCF men's golf team is coming off its third-straight Conference USA Championship and fifth-consecutive NCAA Regional appearance. The Knights open up the 2011-12 campaign at the Northern Intercollegiate. The two-day tournament will be hosted by Northern Illinois and take place in Sugar Grove, Ill., starting Saturday.
The tournament opens with two rounds on Saturday, followed by one round Sunday. The other teams competing in the tournament are Akron, Ball State, Bowling Green, Eastern Michigan, East Tennessee State, No. 12 Illinois, Illinois State, Indiana, Miami of Ohio, Northern Illinois, Purdue, St. Francis, Toledo, Tulsa and Virginia Tech. Six teams in the field finished last season in the top-60 according to Golfstat. Of the six, Illinois was the highest ranked, at No. 7.
Earlier this week, the Knights finalized their lineup. Lone-senior Brad Schneider (Valrico, Fla.) posted the team's best score during UCF's qualifiers. Coming off of a strong freshman season, sophomore Greg Eason (Leicester City, London) posted the second best score on the team. Sophomores Ricardo Gouveia (Almancil, Portugal), Jose Joia (Lagoa, Portugal) and freshman McCabe Buege (Roger, Minn.) are making their UCF debut. Joia and Gouveia competed for Lynn last season.
This is the first of four fall tournaments for the Knights.
This will be the first time in Bryce Wallor's tenure as head coach of the Knights that the team's first tournament was not at the Wolf Run Golf Club in Zoinsville, Ind. The Knights improved from a sixth-place finish in the tournament in 2009 to a second-place tie in the tournament last season.