Youth will be served for the Oregon women’s golf team this week, as the Ducks head 45 minutes north to Corvallis for the annual Pacific-10 Conference Championships today through Saturday. The tournament will be held at the Trysting Tree Golf Club, a par-72, 6,160-yard course.
Oregon’s youth movement continues as coach Shannon Rouillard has elected to send three freshman and two sophomores into the most important tournament in the Ducks’ 2002-03 season. Senior Annie Davis will also participate in the tournament but her score will not count, as she has entered the field as an individual.
Among the youngest of Ducks competing in the tournament is the team’s most prolific player, Therese Wenslow. Wenslow leads the team with a 76.8 stroke average to go along with three top-10 finishes and seven top-50 finishes. Oregon will also send freshmen Erin Andrews and Michelle Timpani, who both currently have a 79.9 stroke average.
However, Oregon’s most steady influence comes from sophomore Johnna Nealy and her 78 stroke average. Nealy’s roommate and teammate Jess Carlyon will also travel with the Ducks. Carlyon holds an 82.7 stroke average.
The Ducks begin the tournament at 9 a.m. today along with Washington State, the team the Ducks will be paired with for the opening round.
Highlighting the competition this weekend is No. 5 USC and defending champion No. 6 Arizona. The Wildcats have won five of the last six Pac-10 tournaments and are strong favorites to repeat again. No. 8 California has yet to win a conference championship, along with No. 13 UCLA and No. 20 Washington, who are also seeking their first conference crown.
Oregon looks to bounce back from a poor Pac-10 tournament performance last season as it finished 10th overall. Nealy and Carlyon are the only hold-overs from last year’s Pac-10 Tournament. Nealy finished tied for 51st overall and Carlyon tied for 56th. Both competed as freshmen. The highest the Ducks have finished in the tournament is a fourth-place tie, which Oregon has done twice, once in 1991 and again in 1993.
Oregon has struggled in its last two tournaments after a string of several top-10 finishes. Oregon competed April 4-6 at the Ping/ASU Invitational and was led by Wenslow. The team finished 15th overall after finishing the previous week at 17th at the UCLA Bruin Classic. The Ducks appeared to be hitting their stride in early March, when they finished the Spartan Invitational and their own Duck Invitational ninth and eighth, respectively.