Women’s Golf Opens Spring Schedule At Rio Verde

Live Scoring

Women's Golf 2/23/2022 3:00:00 PM

PEORIA, Ill. -- Picked to finish third in the Missouri Valley Conference Coaches Poll released Wednesday afternoon by the league office, Bradley Women's Golf swings back into action this week with the Braves opening their 2022 Spring Schedule at the Rio Verde Invitational Friday, Saturday and Sunday.

With last year's Rio Verde Invite cancelled, Bradley will be playing in the event for the 18th time in the last 19 seasons after the Braves finished ninth of 18 teams at the 2020 Rio Verde Invitational. Bradley has placed in top five at the Rio Verde Invite in three of the last five trips.

Play at the Rio Verde Country Club's par-72 White Wing course gets underway Friday at 2 p.m. (CST) with a shotgun start. Saturday's second round and Sunday's final round will each feature 9:30 a.m. (CST) shotgun starts. BradleyBraves.com will provide links to live scoring for all three rounds.

Bradley is one of four Missouri Valley Conference teams in the 18-field along with Illinois State, Loyola and Missouri State. Tournament-host Western Michigan in addition to Akron, Ball State, Bowling Green, Eastern Michigan, Central Michigan and Ohio give the Mid-American Conference seven squads in the tournament. Kennesaw State is the top-rated team slated to compete, checking in at #95 in the latest Golfweek.com rankings, while Big East members Butler and Xavier join Cal Baptist, Oakland, South Dakota and former Valley rival Wichita State to round out the field.

Freshman Maria Perakis ended the fall on a strong note, taking home MVC Golfer of the Week honors after picking up her second top-10 finish of the season at the Little Rock Golf Classic in October. Perakis ranks fifth in the MVC with a team-best 74.53, which would be the best average by a Bradley freshman and would rank fifth among Bradley season marks. She fired a 75 or better in 11 of her 15 rounds in the fall.

Three of the five Braves slated to play at the Rio Verde Invite played in the 2020 event. Senior Megan Welch earned the first top-10 finish of her career during Bradley's last trip to Arizona, tying for ninth at the 2020 Rio Verde Invite at seven-over 223. Welch posted a 74.67 stroke average this fall, which would rank ranks sixth among Bradley season records and she has lowered her career stroke average to 77.80, which is sixth in school history.

Junior Mara Flaherty owned a 76.25 stroke average over her final eight rounds of the fall and fired a 73 in the final round of the Little Rock Golf Classic to close out the fall schedule. Flaherty's season stroke average of 76.47 is over three strokes better than her average from 2020-21 and ranks third on the squad in the fall. She wrapped up the 2020 Rio Verde Invite with back-to-back 78's.

Like Perakis, freshman Kathryn McNease also had a strong start to her rookie season, closing out the fall with a 77.07 average. McNease is third on the team with 13 rounds in the 70's and has five rounds of 75 or better to her credit.

Senior Sarah Nacos played in the 2020 Rio Verde Invite as an individual and will round out the lineup for the Braves at this year's event. Nacos played in four of five tournaments in the fall, with her 78.20 stroke average this season the best of her career.

The Braves follow up the Rio Verde Invitational with another trip out west for the Jackrabbit Invitational March 14 & 15 in Boulder City, Nevada.

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