The University of Wyoming women’s golf team hits the links for the final time during the 2012-13 season when the Cowgirls travel to the 2013 Mountain West Championship today through Saturday at Mission Hills Country Club in Rancho Mirage, Calif.
The eight-team field will play 18 holes starting at 7:30 a.m. Pacific Time each day on the par-72, 6,324-yard Dinah Shore Tournament Course.
“I believe we have a real chance if we get a positive, consistent effort by each player,” Cowgirls Head Coach Josey Stender said. “We cannot control what the other teams do, but if we have a solid, confident game plan, I think we will fare well. Every tournament we have been in this semester has been on a challenging set up against some very good teams, so we are fully prepared for anything.”
Wyoming, which is paired with San Diego State and Nevada in the first round, returns four Cowgirls from a squad that finished seventh last season at the Wigwam Resort in Phoenix, Ariz. Juniors Stacey Blunt and Emily Wood finished just outside the top-25 at last year’s MW Championship, but have paced UW the majority of this spring. Blunt has finished as the top Cowgirl at five of Wyoming’s six tournaments, while Wood’s 79.0 strokes per round this season is best on the team. All five Cowgirls competing this weekend are within 2.5 strokes of each other.
Senior Dana Zamprelli is UW’s top returning golfer from last year’s conference championship. She was the second Cowgirl at 233 (+17) in 2012. Sophomore Samantha Stancato is coming off the best tournament of her career after finishing fourth at last week’s Fresno State Lexus Classic with a 220 (+4). Freshman Kathleen Kershisnik rounds out UW’s lineup and will make her first appearance at the MW Championship this weekend.
TCU captured the team title in 2012 with a 904 (+40), while the Horned Frogs’ Sanna Nuutinen won the individual title after four tiebreak holes. UNLV enters this year’s tournament as the top-ranked MW team, earning the No. 50 spot in the latest Golfweek rankings, while a total of five conference teams are ranked in the top 100 in the nation. UNLV’s Dana Finkelstein is the only MW player in the individual top 100 rankings at No. 75.
