INDIANAPOLIS – The GLVC Sports Network will stream 18 hours of coverage over three days of the 2016 Great Lakes Valley Conference Women's Golf Championships, which begin Friday, April 22 at Annbriar Golf Course in Waterloo, Illinois.
This is the second time in the history of the Conference Championships that the event will be streamed.
The GLVCSN will stream live and free coverage of the 18th annual event, which is the seventh year in a row that the tournament will be held in Waterloo.
For the second time in tournament history, the event will follow a 54-hole format on the par-72, 5,882-yard course. A total of 18 holes are played on each day of competition.
The GLVCSN’s 18 hours of coverage will begin at 7:45 a.m. CT on Friday, Saturday and Sunday. The coverage will feature the No. 1 tee and No. 13 green – along with other select shots – and include live interviews from the league’s 14 head coaches. John Edwards, who was on hand for coverage of the GLVC Men’s Golf Championship at Panther Creek, will be on the call throughout the event.
Last season, the University of Indianapolis finished the 54-hole event at 912 (308-300-304) to claim its Conference-record fourth consecutive title, four strokes better than runner-up University Missouri-St. Louis (301-317-308—926) and five ahead of third-place finisher University of Southern Indiana (304-301-322—927). The team win was another milestone for UIndy as the Greyhounds' ninth overall title surpassed the combined total of the league's five other winners over the 17-year history of the event.
The top-four seeds coming into this year’s event also carry East Region top-10 rankings. UIndy (2nd) returns to the GLVC Championships as the No. 1 seed, after also winning its first ever NCAA Division II National Championship, which was the first of its kind for any sport at the university. The defending champs are followed by 2nd-seed Southern Indiana (4th), No. 3 Missouri-St. Louis (5th), No. 4 University of Illinois Springfield (10th) and No. 5 seed William Jewell College. Lewis University will be sixth, Drury University will be seed No. 7, Bellarmine University will be the No. 8 seed, while Maryville University is ninth for the postseason event, and McKendree University rounds out the top-10 seeded teams. The 11-14 seeds for the tournament respectively include Quincy University, Rockhurst University, Truman State University and Saint Joseph’s College.
Indianapolis (9), Drury (2), Lewis (1), and Southern Indiana (1), along with former GLVC members Northern Kentucky (3) and SIU Edwardsville (1), have each won the GLVC Women's Golf Championship.
The top-five finishers at the championship are named All-GLVC and the top-placing individual after 54-hole medal play earns medalist honors. The two individuals with the highest Golfstat ranking with results outside the top five at the Conference meet will also be named All-Conference. The remaining golf awards, including All-Conference positions Nos. 8-10, as well as GLVC Player, Freshman, and Coach of the Year, are named prior to NCAA Regional competition.
Southern Indiana's Allison Koester returns as the defending GLVC Champion. Last year as a sophomore, she earned a three-stroke victory with a 54-hole total of 222 (71-73-78), marking the second year in a row that a USI sophomore has won the individual crown. Highlighted by a one-under-par 71 on Friday, the lone sub-par round of the tournament, the Screaming Eagle became the fourth USI linkster in school history to win the Conference title. Anastasia Carter, who returns as a senior, garnered medalist distinction in 2014, while Alisha Luigis was the first USI winner in 2004 and Angela Dehning was the 2010 winner.
Other GLVC standouts to watch will be Annika Haynes and 2015 GLVC Women’s Golf Player of the Year Brooke Beegle of UIndy, as well as the GLVC October Player of the Month and last year’s runner-up from UMSL, Stefaniya Ivanova – all of whom finished in the top-5 at last year’s event. In addition, November’s Player of the Month, Rachel Sweeney from Lewis and the March Player of the Month in Greyhound newcomer Katharina Keilich, will both be vying for the league hardware. All-GLVC golfers from a year ago also returning in 2016 include UIndy sophomore Paxton DeHaven and Lewis junior Melissa VanSistine.
Admission to the 2016 GLVC Women's Golf Championship is free to the public. Live streaming can be found on the GLVC Sports Network page at GLVCsports.com/watch, while live scoring through Golfstat, which will occur every three holes, is available on the GLVC Women's Golf Championship page at GLVCsports.com/GLVCwgolf16. Updates will also be included on the GLVC's official Twitter account (@GLVCsports) with the hashtags, #GLVCwgolf, #GLVCSN and #GLVCchamps.