The women’s golf team hits the links this weekend for its last tournament before the Pacific-10 Championships. The No. 41 Ducks are the highest ranked team in the 16-team Illini Spring Classic.
Other ranked teams competing in the Classic are No. 56 Michigan, No. 78 Iowa and No. 92 Illinois. The rest of the field is made up of Ball State, Bowling Green, Cincinnati, Eastern Illinois, Grand Valley State, Illinois Wesleyan, Indiana, Indianapolis, Northern Iowa, Southern Indiana, Truman State and Western Michigan.
The last tournament for the Ducks was the Ping ASU Invitational, March 31-April 2, where the team finished 16th overall.
Freshman Cathryn Bristow finished 14th at the event and has consistently been the best from Oregon. The freshman has been a bright spot for the Ducks as she is ranked 105th in the nation, according to golfweek.com. Bristow has an average of 74.46 strokes per tournament.
U.S. Intercollegiate
The Duck men’s golf team will participate in its final tournament of the season this weekend in Palo Alto, Calif. Oregon takes on ranked opponent and Pac-10 rival No. 5 UCLA as well as No. 17 San Diego State.
The rest of the field is made up of California, UC Davis, UC Irvine, Hawaii-Hilo, Kansas, Long Beach State, Northern Colorado, Oregon State, Rice, San Jose State, Stanford, USC, Washington and Washington State.
USC won the event last season with San Diego State 17 shots behind the Trojans.
The Ducks finished in a tie for seventh with the University of Arizona.
Duck sophomore Joey Benedetti played his way back into the rotation with a tie for eighth in last week’s Thunderbird Invitational.
The rest of the Ducks are seniors Gregg LaVoie and Justin St. Clair, junior Matt Ma and sophomore Derek Sipe. Both seniors and Ma all participated for the Ducks last season.
Ma finished in a tie for third at 1-under par in the 2005 U.S. Intercollegiate. LaVoie finished second for the Ducks and shot a 1-over-par 71 to tie for 36th overall.
The par 70 Stanford Golf Course is the last stop before the Pac-10 Championships.