PEORIA, Ill. -- The Bradley women's golf team will make its annual trek out west this week for the 13th annual Rio Verde Invitational in Rio Verde, Ariz., Friday, Saturday and Sunday, with the Braves playing in the event for the 12th consecutive year.
The Rio Verde Invitational kicks off a busy spring break for Bradley, which will also play at the Bearcat Spring Invitational in Florida late next week. The Braves have finished 13th each of the last two years at the Rio Verde Invitational, with junior Danielle Lemek (Doniphan, Neb./Doniphan-Trumbull) tying for fifth at last year's event to lead Bradley.
The three-day, 54-hole tournament will return to the par-71 White Wing Golf Course at the Rio Verde Country Club after last spring's event was held at the par-71 Quail Run Course. Play is scheduled to start Friday at 3 p.m. (CDT) and Saturday's second round will tee off at 10 a.m. Sunday's final round will also feature a 10 a.m. start. BradleyBraves.com will provide links to live scoring for all three days.
Bradley will see some familiar foes at Rio Verde, with the 18-team field including three other Missouri Valley Conference squads in Illinois State, Missouri State and Wichita State. Two teams ranked in Golfweek.com's top 100 will be playing, with 91st-ranked Arkansas-Little Rock and 96th-ranked Toledo helping highlight the list of participants. Mid-American Conference members Akron, Ball State, Bowling Green, Eastern Michigan, Northern Illinois, Ohio and tournament-host Western Michigan are also slated to play. Big East Conference members Seton Hall and Xavier will be joined by UMKC, Northern Arizona and Texas A&M Corpus Christi in the field.
Lemek owns a career 75.8 stroke average at the Rio Verde Invitational after she tied for fifth in 2014 with a three-round total of 223. She has posted 19 consecutive top-20 finishes dating back to the rain-shortened Rio Verde Invite in 2013, where she tied for 43rd. Lemek has carded 21 consecutive sub-80 rounds and is three short of matching Kelly Amundrud's school record of 24 from 2009-10 into the 2010-11 season. In addition, Lemek is three sub-80 rounds from moving into the top three in school history in the category.
Junior Allison Walsh (Mt. Prospect, Ill./Mt. Prospect), who tied for 17th at the Rio Verde Invitational as a freshman in 2013, owns a 77.4 stroke average over the last two tournaments. Freshman Ally Scaccia (Arlington Heights, Ill./Prospect) has been among Bradley's top three finishers in all six tournaments this season and is second on the squad in both stroke average (77.07) and rounds in the 70's (12).
Junior Jenna Roadley (Winnipeg, Manitoba/Sturgeon Heights) is expected to return to the lineup after she was limited to one round in Bradley's spring opener due to injury. Despite the injury, Roadley turned in a career-best two-under 70 in the opening round of the Amelia Island Intercollegiate in late February.
Rounding out the lineup for the Braves will be freshman Abby Wellens (Cincinnati, Ohio/Ursuline Academy), who matched a season-best score to wrap up the Amelia Island Intercollegiate.
