Bradley University Athletics

Women’s Golf Opens Season At Redbird Invitational

Daryl Wilson

Redbird Invitational Live Scoring

Women's Golf 9/9/2017 2:00:00 PM

PEORIA, Ill. -- The Bradley women's golf team was scheduled to open the 2017-18 season in South Carolina this weekend, but will now kick off the season closer to home at the Redbird Invitational in Normal, Ill., Sunday and Monday.

The Braves had been scheduled to start the 2017 Fall season at the Golfweek Program Challenge in Myrtle Beach, S.C., but the tournament was cancelled due to the forecasted path of Hurricane Irma. Bradley was also slated to send a group of four individuals to the Redbird Invitational, however, and will now send all nine team members to open the season at the par-72 Weibring Golf Club.

Sunday's 36 holes are expected to get underway at 8:30 a.m. and Monday's final round will also feature an 8:30 a.m. shotgun start. Four Missouri Valley Conference rivals join the Braves in the field, with Loyola, Southern Illinois, Valparaiso and tournament-host Illinois State helping make up the 12-team field which also includes Ball State, Bowling Green, Illinois Wesleyan, IUPUI, Northern Illinois, Ohio and Western Illinois.

Bradley is no stranger to the Redbird Invitational with the Braves participating in the event for the eighth consecutive year. In fact, Bradley has placed in the top seven of the field in each of the last seven seasons after taking sixth of 14 teams to open the 2016-17 campaign.

Sophomore Taylor Ledwein is one of eight returning letterwiners for the Braves from last year's team which finished third at the MVC Championship. She led Bradley with a 75.97 stroke average in 2016-17 for the second lowest average by a Bradley freshman and seventh best season average in school history. Ledwein placed in the top 10 six times in her first season on The Hilltop.

Senior Ally Scaccia enters her final season with the second lowest career stroke average in school history (76.93) and needs one sub-80 round to become the fifth player in program history with 70 career rounds in the 70's or better. Scaccia has placed in the top 15 in two of three previous trips to the Redbird Invitational and owns a 75.44 career stroke average at the Weibring Golf Club. She was second on the team with a 76.24 stroke average last season.

Junior Frankie Saban also appeared in the Bradley lineup in every round last year and had an impressive spring in which she posted a 76.78 stroke average. Saban was among Bradley's top three finishers in eight of 12 tournaments last year, finishing the season with a 77.94 average. She was 16th at last year's Redbird Invitational.

Bradley's 2017-18 nine-person roster features just three underclassmen and only one newcomer. Freshman Maddie Hawkins is expected to challenge Bradley's returning letterwinners for a spot in the lineup after claiming an Iowa Class 5A state championship last year.

Following the Redbird Invitational the Braves head to Yorktown, Ind., for the Cardinal Classic Sept. 18 & 19.

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