Women's golf kick off 2016-17 season on Sunday

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Feb 1

Women's Golf

Advance Golf Partners Collegiate

Feb 23

Women's Golf

Babs Steffens Invitational

Mar 13

Women's Golf

Red Rocks Invitational

Mar 30

Women's Golf

Colonel Classic

Apr 11

Women's Golf

Jan Weaver Invitational

Apr 19

Women's Golf

MVC Championship

What? Redbird Invitational
Where? Weibring Golf Club at Illinois State University
When? Sept. 4 and 5
Who's playing? (14 teams) Ball State, Boston College, Bowling Green, Bradley, Butler, Drake, Evansville, Florida Gulf Coast, Illinois State, Loyola-Chicago, Northern Illinois, Ohio, Southern Illinois, Western Illinois
Course Par/Yardage: Par 72/ 6,090 yards
Live scoring: https://www.birdiefire.com/tournament/23389/

The Southern Illinois University women's golf team will kick off the 2016-17 campaign on Sunday at the Redbird Invitational in Bloomington, Illinois. The tournament will offer the Salukis a chance to see how they stack up against great opponents early in the season.

SIU is coming off a year in which the Salukis won two events and turned in another seven top-five finishes on the way to a fifth place finish at the Missouri Valley Conference Championship in April. Senior Brooke Cusumano and Junior Hanna Netisingha also won a combined three tournaments through the course of the year.

"I'm excited to see where we're at after the summer. Who competes? Who dusted off the rust from the summer? And I'm excited to see who else is out there as well." sixth-year head coach Alexis Mihelich said.

The season opener offers Southern the chance to size themselves up against some familiar opponents on a familiar course. The Salukis opened last year's season with a tie for 6th at the Redbird Invitational and Mihelich said her team knows the course well. Senior Brooke Cusumano won the Women's Collegiate Division of the Youth Classic Golf Tournament at Weibring Golf Club on Illinois State University's campus in June.

The Redbird Invitational also offers the team a snapshot of what close to half of the Missouri Valley Conference could play like throughout the year. Drake, Bradley, Evansville, the host school Illinois State and Loyola will all field teams for the event.

"I love scheduling this tournament so that we can see teams from the MVC pretty early. Usually half of the Valley teams compete in the event, so we just kind of get to see where everybody is at." Mihelich said. "Who is strong? Who is Weak? How do we need to get better or what do we need to do to be the top team in the Valley."

For her team, Mihelich has chosen to go with her more experienced players. Senior Brooke Cusumano, junior Hannah Netisingha, sophomore Sun Jung, senior Xianmei Jin and junior Alice Ho will all make the trip to Bloomington. The five players Mihelich has chosen have played in a combined total of 283 rounds in their collegiate careers.

"The team is really excited to play Weibring. They like the course. It's been a real fight for the lineup spot, so our five that travel have earned it. If we've got three seniors that travel they'll have played this course 15 to 20 times, so we should do alright."

The Redbird Invitational tees off at 8:30 on Sunday morning with a shotgun start.

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Players Mentioned

Alice Ho

Sun Jung

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