BATON ROUGE — The 28th-ranked LSU women’s golf team goes back on the road this weekend for its third tournament of the fall season, the prestigious Mercedes-Benz Collegiate Championships in Knoxville, Tenn.
The Lady Vols of Tennessee are the host for the event at the par 71, Cherokee Country Club. The 54-hole tournament begins on Friday with rounds each day through Sunday.
The field consists of 17 teams and joining the Lady Tigers and seventh ranked Tennessee is: No. 5 Alabama, No. 6 Florida, No. 9 Auburn, No. 12 Denver, No. 16 Purdue, No. 19 Arkansas, No. 22 Kent State, No. 26 North Carolina, No. 27 Michigan State, No. 32 Furman, No. 33 Virginia, No. 47 Central Florida, No. 48 Ohio State, No. 64 SMU and rounding out the field, the Swedish Junior National Team.
Last year, host Tennessee won in playoff over Georgia. The Tigers are returning to the Mercedes-Benz field after not playing in it in 2005 and 2006, having placed fifth in the event in the fall of 2004.
LSU will continue with its young lineup that has had some success and some growing pains in the first two tournaments. Three freshmen — Amalie Valle, Megan McChrystal and Lindy LaBauve — will be joined by two seniors — Kim Meck and Alexis Rather.
Rather will be making her season debut and the three-time National Golf Coaches Association Scholar Athlete will be looking for some of the success she had at the end of last year when she posted a top 15 finish in the Southeastern Conference championships with a 54-hole total of six-over par. Meck is also making her season debut, looking for a strong finish to conclude her career.
Valle is the leader in stroke average on the team after two events at 74.0, while McChrystal has a 74.5 stroke average after two events. LaBauve averaged 77 in her one event she played this year.
“Again, we are facing a very difficult field and it will be a good challenge for the girls,” said LSU Coach Karen Bahnsen. “We have been working on a lot of things since our last tournament and look forward to putting some of the practice into play this weekend.”
The Tigers were fifth in the opening event last month, the Cougar Classic hosted by the College of Charleston and followed that up in the same week by finishing 16th at the Mason Rudolph Championship at Vanderbilt. LSU will conclude its fall season with a tournament in Tuscaloosa at the end of October.
Live scoring for the event is available at www.golfstat.com.