BOWLING GREEN, Ky. -Â After notching its best conference tournament finish since 1997 last year, the WKU women's golf team will look to keep building on that upward trend this week at the 2017 Conference USA Championship.
The Lady Toppers will be one of 11 teams competing Monday through Wednesday at the par-72, 6,194-yard Verandah Club in Fort Myers, Fla. The teams will play 18 holes each day in the 54-hole event.
WKU is slated to tee off on the back nine Monday morning. The Lady Toppers will take senior Daniela Galassi, juniors Georgina Blackman and Katie Story, and freshmen Mary Joiner and Abigail Smee to the tournament.
"I think we're trending in the right direction," WKU head coach Adam Gary said. "I feel like the team is finally starting to gain some momentum, and I'm looking forward to taking that momentum into conference."
WKU finished fourth at last year's C-USA Championship, its best conference tourney result in nearly two decades. The top returning individual from that effort is Blackman, who tied for 16th.
The Lady Toppers have notched six top-five finishes in their last seven tournaments, including two straight top-three results most recently.
WKU finished second in the Jan Weaver Invitational on April 8, trailing only host Murray State on its home course, and came in third at the MSU Spring Citrus Challenge before that with a school record-tying 288 in the final round.
Blackman has notched three straight finishes of sixth place or better, as well as five top-10 performances. Joiner has four top 10s, including two victories, and Story has logged four top-15 showings in her last five outings.
Gary said the team is finally starting to get back up to speed after several members of the team battled through the flu and strep throat earlier in the semester.
"I feel like we're starting to get our strength back and starting to feel normal," he said. "The weather's better, so we can get outside more with the time change. As the semester's progressed, all three years I've been here, we've gotten better as the spring has carried on."
The winning team at the C-USA Championship earns the league's automatic bid to the 2017 NCAA Women's Golf Championship Regionals.
