PEORIA, Ill. -- Junior Danielle Lemek (Doniphan, Neb./Doniphan-Trumbull) will look to defend her individual title and the Bradley women's golf team will try to improve on last year's fifth-place team finish when the Braves head to Burlington, Iowa, for the Missouri Valley Conference Women's Golf Championship April 19-21.
Lemek ran away with the individual title at last year's MVC Women's Golf Championship at Panther Creek Country Club in Springfield, Ill., claiming top honors by an impressive seven strokes and the defending MVC Player of the Year will be one of the favorites in this year's championship which will be held Sunday, Monday and Tuesday at Spirit Hollow Golf Course.
The Braves finished fifth at last year's conference championship, with only nine strokes separating Bradley from 2014 team champ Wichita State. Missouri State is the pre-championship favorite, while the Braves were fifth according to a vote of the league coaches.
Play is scheduled to begin Sunday morning at 9 a.m. and the three-day 54-hole tournament will tee off each day at 9 a.m. BradleyBraves.com will provide a link to live stats for all three rounds.
Lemek has finished in the top two at the Missouri Valley Conference Championship each of her first two seasons and tied her own school record for the lowest 54-hole total in school history (212) on her way to winning medalist honors last year. She leads the MVC with a 73.69 stroke average this year and has a chance to break her own MVC season stroke average of 73.61 she set last year. Lemek has 26 rounds in the 70's or better this year, two short of her school record 28 set in 2013-14.
Freshman Ally Scaccia (Arlington Heights, Ill./Prospect) tied for second to lead the Braves at the Indiana State Spring Invitational earlier this week and has finished in the top five in each of the last two tournaments. Scaccia has 18 rounds in the 70's this year and has a chance to become just the fourth freshmen in school history to tally 20 sub-80 rounds. In addition, her 77.62 season average ranks as the second lowest by a Bradley freshman.
Junior Jenna Roadley (Winnipeg, Manitoba /Sturgeon Heights) posted her first top-20 finish of the year at Indiana State this week, tying for 15th. Roadley, who has a 77.40 stroke average this spring, was 20th at last year's MVC Championship.
Fellow junior Allison Walsh (Mt. Prospect, Ill./Mt. Prospect) has finished 23rd in each of her first two appearances in the MVC Championship. Freshman Grace Henderson (Peachtree Corners, Ga./Blessed Trinity) will play in her fourth straight event to round out the Bradley lineup.
The Bradley women's golf team will be playing in the state of Iowa for the first time since Drake hosted the 2009 MVC Championship in Panora, Iowa.
