OSU Part Of Tough Field At Longhorn Invitational
March 18, 2004
CORVALLIS, Ore. - -
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THIS WEEK: Oregon State takes aim at one of the toughest fields it will face this year when it tees off Sunday-Tuesday, March 21-23 in its first appearance at Texas' Betsy Rawls Longhorn Invitational women's golf tournament. The Hills Country Club (par 72, 6,247 yards), in Austin, hosts the event.
Five of the nation's top 13 programs - California (4), Arizona (7), Vanderbilt (9), USC (11) and Tulsa (13) headline the 18-team field. In all, 14 of the 18 squads are ranked 38th or higher by Golfweek.
"We're excited to compete with some of the best teams in the country this week," OSU coach Rise Lakowske said. "We've had three weeks to work on some things since our last tournament, and we're feeling good about our play right now.
"Competing against a high-caliber field like this will give us a good taste of what's down the road for the rest of the year. It will be a good test."
Leah Whiting (so.), Lindsay Eide (fr.), Alex Lucio (jr.), Laura Skinner (sr.) and Anna Rosvall (so.) comprise OSU's lineup.
Whiting and Eide are coming off strong tournaments at San Jose State's Spartan Invitational earlier this month, where they finished tied for 25th and 29th, respectively.
The Beavers, ranked 75th out of 221 collegiate programs, finished 10th at San Jose. Texas' Jessica Reese (-4, 212) won the Longhorn Invitational last year, while Oklahoma State claimed the team title (+32, 896). Neither is back to defend.
Teams play 18 holes each day beginning at 6 a.m. Pacific.
COMPLETE FIELD (Golfweek ranking): Arizona (7), Arizona State (31), California (4), Kansas (71), Kansas State (34), UNLV (22), North Carolina (20), Northwestern (38), Oklahoma (16), Oregon State (75), Purdue (57), USC (11), SMU (59), Texas (19), Texas A&M (37), TCU (33), Tulsa (13) and Vanderbilt (9).
LIVE SCORING: Live scoring will be provided each round by Golfstat at www.golfstat.com.
THE COACHES: The Oregon State women's golf program is in its 14th year under the guidance of coach Ris? (pronounced Reesa) Lakowske. In those 14 years, the program has been a consistent postseason contender with 10 team and individual appearances at the NCAA Regional Championships and two at the NCAA Championships.
Lakowske competed at OSU from 1973-77, playing in four AIAW National Championships, winning two collegiate events and several non-collegiate tournaments during her career. Most notably as an amateur competitor she was a semifinalist in the 1973 Western Junior Championship and also a semifinalist in the 1976 U.S. Women's Amateur, earning her a three-year exemption from U.S. Open qualifiers.
Kathleen Takaishi officially became Oregon State University's assistant women's golf coach on Feb. 23, 2004, returning to her alma mater after serving as the assistant coach for both the men's and women's programs at the University of California-Riverside for the last 1 1/2 years.
The former OSU All-American played professionally on the Futures Tour for three years after finishing her OSU career.
