University of Southern Indiana Women’s Golf opens the 2018-19 season Sunday when it hosts the 23rd annual Screaming Eagles Classic at Cambridge Golf Course. The two-day, 36-hole event is being held at Cambridge Golf Course for the 13th consecutive year.
USI is one of 10 teams competing in this year’s tournament. Joining the Eagles are Great Lakes Valley Conference foes Bellarmine University, Lewis University, Maryville University, McKendree University, Missouri S&T, Quincy University, Rockhurst University and William Jewell College. Former GLVC member and current regional opponent Kentucky Wesleyan College rounds out the 10-team field.
Junior Grace Davis (Valparaiso, Indiana) is looking to become the first-player in tournament history to win the individual title three times after finishing first with a two-under par 142 (72-70) as a freshman in 2016 and a five-over par 149 (68-81) as a sophomore last season.
Davis’s efforts helped the Eagles capture the team crown for the fifth time last year. USI posted a two-round total of 626 after beginning the event with a 308 in the opening round.
USI, which is set to play in five tournaments during the fall season, is under the direction of Head Coach Jim Cheaney, who is no stranger to USI Golf. Cheaney, who begins his first year with the women’s team, directed the men’s program from 2012-15.
The Eagles return six players from last year’s NCAA II Tournament squad, including Davis, who finished the year with an 80.29 strokes-per-round average in seven rounds of action last fall. Sophomore Brooke Moser (Leo, Indiana) is USI’s top returnee from a year ago after finishing second on the team with a strokes-per-round average of 80.24. She had three top-10 finishes and a pair of top-five placements in her first year of collegiate golf.
Finding a replacement for Taylor Howerton (Evansville, Indiana), who was lost to graduation, will be USI’s toughest challenge early in the year. Howerton set the program’s single-season scoring record with a strokes-per-round average of 76.92, while also setting the career mark with an average of 77.32.
Play begins Sunday at 9 a.m., followed by a shotgun start Monday at 8 a.m. Cambridge Golf Course is located about a mile south of the Hwy. 41 and I-64 intersection.
