PEORIA, Ill. -- The Bradley women's golf team will play its only home tournament of 2015-16, welcoming 11 other teams to WeaverRidge Golf Club for the Bradley Invitational Saturday and Sunday.
Action gets underway Saturday with an 8 a.m. shotgun start and will feature two rounds of play on the opening day. The tournament wraps up Sunday with an 8:15 a.m. shotgun start for the third and final round. The Braves will host a Meet & Greet featuring Kaboom! Sunday at approximately 2:30 p.m. following the completion of the tournament with the team available to autograph schedule posters.
With 12 teams scheduled to compete, the Bradley Invitational features its largest field since 14 teams played in the 2009 event. A Missouri Valley Conference team has claimed the team title in seven previous home tournaments the Braves have hosted and Valley squads make up half the field with Drake, Evansville, Indiana State, Loyola and Northern Iowa making the trip to Peoria. The rest of the field consists of DePauw, Illinois-Chicago, Nebraska-Omaha, SIU Edwardsville, Western Illinois and Wisconsin-Green Bay.
Both the team and individual champion from last year's event return to WeaverRidge this spring with Indiana State trying to defend its team title. Bradley finished third at the 2015 Bradley Invite, four shots behind the Sycamores.
The Braves will have two teams in the Bradley Invitational field and this weekend's tournament will mark the final home tournament for three Bradley seniors.
Senior Danielle Lemek (Doniphan, Neb./Doniphan-Trumbull) claimed medalist honors at last year's Bradley Invitational with a 54-hole score of 226 and also took top honors as a freshman in 2013 (223). The last three Bradley Invitational medalist winners will take part in this year's tournament, with Evansville's Kayla Katterhenry winning the individual title at the 2014 rain-shortened event.
Lemek has won both tournaments she has played in her career at WeaverRidge Golf Club and owns a 74.83 career stroke average at the home course of the Braves. She enters the weekend tied with Breanne Neufeld (2007-11) for the most rounds played in school history at 114. Lemek fired a 75 at the Cardinal Challenge back on March 16 in Bradley's last outing and now has the most career sub-80 rounds of any individual (male or female) in school history at 105. Former Bradley men's golf standout Seth Trolia, who graduated last spring, held the previous mark of 104.
Senior Jenna Roadley (Winnipeg, Manitoba/Sturgeon Heights) was forced to withdraw from last year's Bradley Invitational due to injury. She has the longest active streak on the roster for sub-80 rounds at six, averaging 75.00 per round during that stretch. Roadley owns a 74.90 stroke average this spring and needs three sub-80 rounds to take over sole possession of sixth in school history, starting the weekend two behind Rikki Sobel.
In addition to Lemek and Roadley, fellow senior Allison Walsh (Mt. Prospect, Ill./Mt. Prospect) will be playing in the final home event of her career. Walsh has finished in the top 20 in two of the three previous Bradley Invites. She needs three rounds played to become the 11th individual in program history to play 100 career rounds and is ninth all-time with 45 career sub-80 rounds.
Sophomore Ally Scaccia (Arlington Heights, Ill./Prospect) tied for fifth at last year's Bradley Invitational for one of her two top-10 finishes during her freshman season. Scaccia is second on the team this year with a 76.65 stroke average and 20 sub-80 rounds. She is the fourth player in program history to shoot 19 or more rounds in the 70's or better in two different seasons and has joined Lemek and Kelly Amundrud as the only Braves to card 19 or more sub-80 rounds as both a freshman and sophomore.
Following the Bradley Invitational the Braves will play their final tournament before the Missouri Valley Conference Championship (April 17-19) at the Indiana State Invitational April 10 & 11 in Terre Haute, Ind.
