Falcons Set to Fly West for the Rio Verde Invitational

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Bowling Green, Ohio – For the fourth straight year and the 13th year overall, the Bowling Green State University women's golf team will head west to compete in the Rio Verde Invitational hosted by Western Michigan University on Feb. 26-28 at the Rio Verde Country Club in Rio Verde, Arizona.

This year's 54-hole tournament will be played at the par 72, 6,215-yards White Wing Golf Course at the Rio Verde Country Club and will feature an 18-team field in Arkansas-Little Rock, Toledo, Missouri-Kansas City, Eastern Michigan, Seton Hall, Illinois State, Northern Illinois, Wichita State, Ball State, Northern Arizona, Xavier, Missouri State, Bradley, Ohio, Akron, Arkansas State, BGSU and the host WMU Broncos.

"We are looking forward to building off of our strong play at the Florida event on Feb. 8-9," commented head coach Stephanie Young. "Thanks to WMU for continuing to host this event. Over the years it has become one of the most beloved tournaments in women's college golf and we are excited to be a participant again this year."

The Falcons will have a mix of both experience and youth in the lineup this weekend, as Coach Young's lineup includes seniors Lily Bartell and Hannah Lewis, freshman Erin Fahey, junior Mikayla Baer and sophomore Madelynn Swank.

Bartell will tee-off for the Falcons at the No. 1 position, as the senior went 3-0-1 overall at the Women's Mid-American Match Play Challenge event to kick off the spring slate on Feb. 8-9. Bartell will be playing in her fourth Rio Verde Invitational event having played in it each of the last three seasons. She posted a 36-hole score of 157, +13, to place in a tie for 53rd overall as a freshman in 2013. As a sophomore in the 2014 event, she carded rounds of 73, 85 and 74 to finish in a tie for 28th overall with a 54-hole score of 232, +16, while last year she placed in a tie for 54th overall with a three-round combined score of 234, +18.

At the No. 2 spot for the Falcons is Lewis, who like Bartell will be playing in her fourth Rio Verde event in Arizona this weekend. Lewis, who went 2-1-1 overall at the No. 1 spot at the match play challenge tournament in Florida, placed in a tie for 71st at the 2015 Rio Verde Invitational last spring with a 54-hole score of 238, +22. In 2014, she finished in a tie for 45th with a three-round combined score of 236, +20, while as a freshman in 2013 Lewis carded rounds of 79 and 77 to finish in a tie for 43rd overall with a 36-hole score of 156, +12.

Fahey will be teeing-off for the first time at the Rio Verde Invitational this weekend at the No. 3 position for the Falcons. The freshman went 3-0-1 overall at the Women's Mid-American Match Play Challenge to start the spring season back on Feb. 8-9 and turned in two top-25 finishes over the fall season with a 13th-place showing at the 2015 Rocket Classic and a 24th-place finish at the 2015 Cardinal Classic. Fahey has turned in a low round 72, even par, already this season and has a BGSU career-low 54-hole score of 230, +14, having played in all six events for the Falcons thus far this year.

At the No. 4 spot is Baer, who will look to build upon her solid fall season in which she tied Lewis for the team-best stroke average over the fall season with an average of 77.67 over 15 rounds of play. Baer, who carded a BGSU low round 71 over the fall slate, went 1-3-0 overall in match play at the Falcons' spring opener in Florida. The junior, who recorded a ninth-place finish at the 2015 Redbird Invitational on Sept. 6-7 and finished 14th overall at the 2015 Cardinal Classic on Sept. 21-22, will be playing in her first Rio Verde Invitational tournament this weekend.

Swank will be making her debut this year at the Rio Verde Invitational at the No. 5 position in the lineup having not competed for the Falcons over the 2015 fall slate. The sophomore played in four events last year as a freshman for BGSU, taking first-place honors at the 2014 Jon P. Spiess Memorial tournament. Swank carded a low round 75, +3, last season and finished with a stroke average of 81.50 overall for the year.

The first round of play will begin on Friday, Feb. 26, with a shotgun start at 1 p.m. MST (3 p.m. EST)

The second and third rounds of play are set for an 8:30 a.m. MST (10:30 a.m. EST) shotgun start on both Saturday, Feb. 27, and Sunday, Feb. 28.

Live scoring will be available for all three rounds at www.Golfstat.com.

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Mikayla Baer

Lily Bartell

Erin Fahey

Hannah Lewis

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