PEORIA, Ill. -- The Bradley women's golf team was picked to finish sixth in the Missouri Valley Conference pre-championship poll announced by the league office. The Braves finished two points behind Wichita State for fourth-place in a vote of the 10 conference coaches.
The 54-hole State Farm Missouri Valley Conference Championship will be held April 18-20 at Rolling Hills Country Club in Newburgh, Ind., with the team champion advancing to NCAA Regionals. The 10 teams will have practice rounds on Saturday, April 17 before competition begins at 9:30 a.m. Sunday. Live scoring for the entire tournament will be available at www.golfstat.com
Junior Breanne Neufeld (Coaldale, Alberta/Kate Andrews) and sophomore Kelly Amundrud (Calgary, Alberta/Strathcona Tweedsmuir) have led the Braves throughout the season and both rank among the top five players in the Missouri Valley Conference in stroke average.
Neufeld has carded 23 of 25 rounds in the 70's and ranks third in the MVC with a 75.52 stroke average. A three-time MVC Golfer of the Week selection this year, she enters the Valley Championship with a good chance of breaking Bradley's season stroke average record of 76.6 set by Meaghan LeBlanc in 2005-06. Neufeld was BU's top finisher at the 2009 State MVC Championship and also has a chance to break the Bradley season mark for rounds in the 70's, needing three sub-80 rounds to break LeBlanc's record of 25.
Amundrud is fifth in the MVC in stroke average at 76.8 and also is in the hunt to break LeBlanc's season stroke average mark. The first Bradley player to have two seasons with 19 or more rounds in the 70's, she has carded 20 rounds in the 70's this season. Amundrud has a chance to become the first player in program history to post better than a 78 stroke average as both a freshman and sophomore. She would join LeBlanc and Bari Erais as the only players in program history to average better than 78.0 in two seasons or more if she accomplishes the feat.
