FLAGSTAFF, Ariz. (February 16, 2020) – Coming off a fall season that featured two top four team finishes, the Northern Arizona golf team tees off the spring with the Rebel Beach Intercollegiate beginning next Monday in Las Vegas. The Lumberjacks will play two rounds on Monday with a shotgun start of 9 a.m. MST before concluding with the third round on Tuesday at 9 a.m. MST.
NAU will be part of a field headlined by USC, ranked third in the country, along with co-hosts UNLV and Long Beach State. The 11-team field will include eight top 100 teams, providing the Lumberjacks with solid competition in their spring opener at Spanish Trail Country Club (par-72, 6,378 yards).
The Lumberjacks, picked third in the 2020 Big Sky Preseason Poll announced last month, will roll out a lineup of senior
Morgan Messick, sophomores
Aleksandra Chekalina,
Ashley Croft and
Elle Kocourkova and freshman
Alyza Flores. Senior
Emma Reyes will also compete as an individual.
NAU's three sophomores lead the team thus far with Croft holding a team-best 75.20 stroke average with Chekalina (75.40) and Kocourkova (75.42) not far behind. In the fall, Croft recorded a team-best three rounds of par or better, while Chekalina posted a pair of rounds in the 60's.
Flores is fourth on the team with a stroke average of 76.47 through her first five collegiate tournaments. Messick played in just one tournament in the fall and recorded a 78.00 stroke average.
The Lumberjacks registered a pair of top four team finishes in five fall tournaments. Their fall season began with a third-place finish, just two strokes behind first-place Cal State Fullerton, at the Hobble Creek Fall Classic with Chekalina finishing third on the individual leaderboard with a one-over par 214 (68-74-72). Chekalina's performance was the best three-round score by any Lumberjack as well as the top individual finish thus far this season.
NAU also finished fourth at the New Mexico State Aggie Invitational where Croft and Kocourkova were tied for eighth individually at three-over par 219.
Croft was NAU's top individual finisher at last season's Rebel Beach Intercollegiate, placing in a tie for 44th at 17-over par 233 (77-77-79). This will be the third consecutive year that the 'Jacks compete at the Rebel Beach.
The Lumberjacks will play five tournaments this spring before the Big Sky Championship at the end of April.
Live scoring will be available on
Golfstat.
