PEORIA, Ill. -- The Bradley women's golf team will play its only home tournament of the 2012-13 season, hosting the Bradley Invitational Saturday and Sunday at WeaverRidge Golf Club.
The Braves will welcome five other teams for the 54-hole tournament, which will start Saturday with an 8:30 a.m. shotgun start and feature 36 holes on the opening day. The tournament concludes Sunday with one round of play starting at 8:30 a.m.
Defending tournament-champion Northern Iowa returns to WeaverRidge after shooting a three-round total of 908 at last spring's event. Joining Bradley and UNI in the field are Missouri Valley Conference foe Indiana State, in-state opponents Illinois-Chicago and Western Illinois along with South Carolina-Upstate.
Bradley is hosting a spring tournament at WeaverRidge Golf Club for the second consecutive year and this weekend's event will mark the fourth time in the last five seasons BU has had a home tournament.
The Braves are coming off a strong showing at the Cincinnati Spring Invitational to conclude the team's Spring Break trip to Florida. Bradley finished second at the rain-shortened event, one stroke out of the lead, and had three individuals place in the top 10 in the field led by freshman Allison Walsh (Mt. Prospect, Ill./Mt. Prospect), who finished fourth for her first career top-10 finish. She has been the team's top finisher in two of the last three tournaments.
Sophomore Christie Lin (Calgary, Alberta/Sir John G Diefenbaker) is coming off back-to-back top-10 finishes after placing ninth at the Cincinnati Spring Invitational and has averaged 77.3 per round over her last four rounds. She finished 11th at last spring's tournament at WeaverRidge.
Freshman Danielle Lemek (Doniphan, Neb./Doniphan-Trumbull) earned her fifth top-10 showing of the year, tying for 10th at the Cincinnati Spring Invitational and leads the Missouri Valley Conference with a 74.8 season stroke average. She has been Bradley's top finisher in seven of nine tournaments this season.
Sophomore Thea Hedemann (Saskatoon, Saskatchewan/Walter Murray) led the Braves at last year's home tournament, where she tied for eighth to pace BU to a fourth-place finish in the 10-team event.
The Bradley Invitational is one of two tournaments remaining on the schedule for BU before the Missouri Valley Conference Championship (April 21-23) later this month. The Braves will also take part in the Indiana Invitational in Bloomington, Ind., April 13 & 14.
