CEDAR CITY, Utah, March 11 – Southern Utah University's women's golf team plays the second tournament of its 2010 spring season next week when it travels to Primm, Nev., for South Dakota State's Jackrabbit Invitational. The tournament will be contested over the 6,945-yard, par 71 Prim Valley Lakes Course.
    Scheduled to compete in the tournament are junior Morgan Kerber, sophomores Sadie Palmer, Kacy Buckner, and Mikayla Williamson, and freshman Jamie Coking will compete for the team with the freshman Brittany Edwards playing as an individual.        The 16-team field includes Oral Roberts, Wyoming, UMKC, Cleveland State, Centenary, North Dakota State, Kennesaw State, Oakland, Northern Iowa, South Dakota, Gonzaga, Drake, Iowa, Missouri State, SUU and host SDSU along with individual players from UNLV.
    This is the tournament's inaugural season.

    The Coach: Richard Church (Utah '89) is in his 10th season as head golf coach and his 14th on the staff at Southern Utah. Prior to taking over the program from former Coach John Evans, Church spent four seasons as the Thunderbirds' assistant coach. During his tenure on the SUU staff, Church has coached five academic all-Americans, one Mid-Continent Conference medalist, two Mid-Con runner-ups and the University's first NCAA post-season competitor in golf. He has also seen the team finish second in the league four times since SUU began competing in the Mid-Con in 1997-98. Church is assisted by Erin Bennion (SUU '08).

    Last Time Out: Southern Utah's women improved by nine strokes in the final round but slipped one position to finish 17th at Northern Arizona's Red Rocks Invitational golf tournament.
    SUU shot 341 in round one to hold a three-stroke lead over North Dakota State heading into the final round at Oak Creek Country Club but the Bison finished at 328 while SUU fired a 332 for a final total of 673, one shot behind NDSU.
    Sadie Palmer led the Thunderbirds, firing a second-round 78 to move from 55th place into a six-way tie for 27th at 19-over par 162. Morgan Kerber (89-80) and Mikayla Williamson (85-84) finished second among Thunderbirds in 60th at 169, while Jamie Coking (85-90, 175) finished 91st and Kacy Buckner (87-90, 177) was 96th. Brittany Edwards, playing as an individual, was tied with Buckner in 96th (95-82).
    Host Northern Arizona placed four players in the top-eight to win the team title at 613, four strokes ahead of Cal Poly (617) and 25 shots ahead of third-place Portland (638). Portland's Paige Rachor claimed the individual title at 5-over par 149, with Cal Poly's Maddy Fletcher and Kristin Locke tied in second at 150.
    “This was a very tough field, and while I was disappointed with the way we played Saturday we played much better [Sunday],” SUU Coach Richard Church said. “Unfortunately, so did everyone around us” in the scoring column.
    The Thunderbirds were two shots behind Utah Valley (671), four behind Montana State (669) and five back of Cal State Bakersfield (668) but well ahead of 18th-place South Carolina Upstate (690).