Frogs look to repeat as MWC champions
4/16/2008 12:00:00 AM | Women's Golf
April 16, 2008
FORT WORTH, Texas -- The TCU women's golf team, with three freshmen in its five-player lineup, begins defense of its Mountain West Conference title Thursday at the MWC Championship in Albuquerque, N.M.
The Horned Frogs rallied from a final round 6-stroke deficit to win last year's title by one shot over BYU. It was TCU's first league championship since 2002 in Conference USA, when the Frogs also trailed by six shots entering the final 18 holes before overtaking a Tulsa team that was ranked No. 1 in the nation.
Dating back to TCU's 1998 Western Athletic Conference championship, TCU has finished first or second in nine of its last 10 league tournaments.
The 27th-ranked Frogs will be seeking their fourth conference championship under 14th-year head coach Angie Ravaioli-Larkin.
TCU is no stranger to the par 73, 6,167-yard University of New Mexico Championship Course, site of this year's MWC Championship and NCAA National Championship. The Frogs played the course in the season-opening NCAA Preview (Sept. 24-26) and shot a 33-over-par 909.
The Frogs have been at the UNM Championship Course at least once in all but one year of Ravaioli-Larkin's tenure.
Sophomore Valentine Derrey, ranked 26th by Golfweek, leads the Frogs with a 74.7 stroke average. The Paris, France, native has posted TCU's low score in seven of eight tournaments. Her seven top-20 results include four top-10 finishes.
Allyson Ferguson, one of the trio of TCU freshmen, was the lone player other than Derrey to post the low score in a tournament for the Frogs this season. Ferguson recorded a career-best tie for seventh at last month's Betsy Rawls Longhorn Invitational. The Houston native is third on TCU with a 78.0 stroke average.
Carrie Morris, the Frogs' only senior, has a career-low 77.9 average to place second on the team. She carded a personal-best 70 at the Lady Puerto Rico Classic.
Freshmen Prisela Campbell and Melissa Loh are tied for second on the team with seven tournaments played this season. Campbell, from Fort Worth (Fossil Ridge High School), has a 78.2 mark with Loh at 79.2.
TCU's lineup features the five low stroke averages on the season. It will be the fourth tournament that Derrey, Morris, Ferguson, Campbell and Loh have played together. They led the Frogs to a 14-stroke victory over Notre Dame at October's Lady Paladin Invitational.
The Frogs will be in action for the first time since the Bryan National Collegiate (March 28-30) in Brown Summit, N.C.
Tee times begin at 9:30 a.m. Central. TCU will be paired in Group 2 with UNLV. Live scoring is available at www.golfstat.com.
Players Mentioned
