April 18, 2015

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BURLINGTON, Iowa - Missouri State opens play in the 2015 Missouri Valley Conference Women's Golf Championship at Spirit Hollow Golf Club Sunday looking for its third title and first since 2012.

The Bears, picked by the league's head coaches as pre-tournament favorites, received nine of a possible 10 first-place votes, and enter the week leading the league in team stroke average at 303.39.

Teams will play 18 holes each of the tournament's three days beginning at 9 a.m., on the 6,024-yard, par-72 course.

Missouri State, which boasts six players in the top 20 in the Valley in individual stroke average, will go with a lineup of freshmen Stine Pettersen and Verena Gimmy, senior Megan Thompson, junior Megan Furnish and senior Chiara Citterio.

Head coach Kevin Kane feels good about how his team has developed down the stretch in the regular season and sees the Bears playing well this week, with a chance to challenge for a second championship in his tenure.

"We've improved a lot over the course of the season to put ourselves in a position where people think we're a contender," he said. "But they don't play it on paper and we need to keep working hard and keep grinding and go about things the right way. We just want to play well and see where we end up when it's all over."

Pettersen is second in the league with a 75.43 scoring average through 23 rounds this season, making her presence known in just her first year in Springfield. The Moss, Norway, native set - and later tied in consecutive tournaments - a MSU freshman record, shooting 69 at the Delta Gamma Challenge (Feb. 15) and Rio Verde Invitational (March 14). Pettersen is also within reach of the Bears' single-season scoring mark from 2006-07, which is owned by Sally Hinton at 75.65.

Gimmy has also had a strong debut season for the Bears. She ranks fourth in the conference with an average of 76.05 and a low of 71, achieved in the first round of the Kansas City Shootout last week. As a team, Missouri State posted its best finish of the season in the tournament, placing second of 13 teams.

Thompson is ninth in the Valley in scoring average at 76.89 in 18 rounds over six tournaments. The Ballyclare, Northern Ireland native posted a season-low round of 72 in the first round of the Bears' home tournament, the MSU Payne Stewart Memorial on Oct. 12. She also claimed a share of fifth place at the UALR/Arkansas State Invitational with an 11-over 227 on March 31.

Furnish sits 11th in the league with a 77.09 average this season in 23 rounds. She carded a career-best 72 in the opening round of the ORU Shootout on Sept. 29 and has been a consistent performer much of the season.

Citterio comes into the tournament 18th in the circuit with a stroke average of 77.82 in 17 rounds this season, and has picked up her play of late. The Milan, Italy, product recorded a pair of top-25 finishes to close strong. She was tied for 19th at UALR March 31 and earned a share of 22nd at the Kansas City Shootout on April 7, both with 15-over-par scores. Citterio is averaging a nearly a full stroke less in that span than in her other four starts this year.

This week's winner earns the MVC's automatic bid to the NCAA regionals to be held May 7-9.