Women's Golf Opens Season This Weekend
9/14/1999 12:00:00 AM | Women's Golf
Sept. 14, 1999
EAST LANSING, Mich. - Michigan State will open its 1999-2000 season ? hoping to follow up on the program?s most successful year in over a decade ? this Friday, Saturday and Sunday at the Lady Northern in Madison, Wis. The Spartans, who last year won three tournaments, completed the best one-year improvement in Big Ten history and reached the NCAA East Regional, will be defending their team title at the Lady Northern, which includes all 11 Big Ten schools among its 16 participants.
?We are looking forward to starting the season and hoping to build upon the success we had last year,? said head coach Stacy Slobodnik, the 1998-99 Midwest District Coach of the Year. ?We are going to be a very young team, but we have the talent to succeed. It is going to depend upon how our new players respond to pressure situations.?
Michigan State will have to defend its title this weekend without the services of junior star Kasey Gant (Fort Wayne, Ind.). Gant is suffering from soreness in her right shoulder, an injury she had even this summer as she advanced to the final eight of the U.S. Women?s Amateur. Gant?s status will be reevaluated next week prior to the Mary Fossum Invitational (Sept. 25-26), which she has won each of her first two years at Michigan State.
?The most important thing without Kasey is for everyone else to step it up a notch,? Slobodnik said. ?It will be difficult for us without her, but I think we still have the ability to win. It?s an unfortunate injury because she was playing the best golf of her life this summer. We just look forward to getting her back healthy.?
Even without Gant, Michigan State still boasts considerable talent, led by sophomore Emily Bastel (Upper Sandusky, Ohio). Bastel led the team and had the second-best stroke average in MSU history last season (77.36) and was named both Big Ten and Midwest District Freshman of the Year. Also returning from the group which appeared in NCAA regionals last season is sophomore Stacy Snider (Grand Rapids, Mich.), who finished third on the team a year ago with a 79.70 stroke average.
Red-shirt freshman Shellie Morton (Detroit, Mich.) will join Bastel and Snider in the starting lineup this weekend. The three other spots in the traveling group will be decided between several returning players and MSU?s five true freshmen.
The Lady Northern features 18 holes each on Friday, Saturday and Sunday at the University Ridge Golf Course (6,033 yards, par 72). The tournament serves as a preview of the Big Ten Championship, which will be held on the same course this spring. The Spartans return home next weekend to defend their title at the Mary Fossum Invitational, held at Forest Akers West Course Saturday and Sunday, Sept. 25-26.