By: Chris Behler ~Staff Writer~

its last two events at the Red Rocks and Rio Verde Invitational, the Xavier’s women’s golf team has embarked for Rancho Santa Fe, Calif. for the SDSU Farms Invitational from March 24-26. So far, the women are sitting in 16th place after the first day of play.
Hosted by No. 45 San Diego State, the tournament also features nine squads ranked in the top 50 in Golfstat top 50: No. 1 USC, No. 2 UCLA, No. 6 Arizona State, No. 13 Stanford, No. 14 Oklahoma State, No. 21 Oregon, No. 26 Miami, No. 36 California and No. 50 UNLV and UC Irvine.

This will make for a challenging road trip for the Muskies considering all of the high-level competition.

However, Xavier is headed by experienced golfer senior Ariel McNair. Averaging a score of 74.86, McNair has been the face of Xavier golf. Though she has never finished higher than fourth place in a tournament, McNair will look to finish well among top competition.
The men’s team, however, is currently in the midst of a two-week lapse in its schedule. In recent action, Xavier finished 13th out of 14 at the Talis Park Challenge.

Leading the five-man squad for this set was senior Yuki Kato finishing in a tie for 33rd place. Next, firing out scores of 78, 81 and 81, freshman Matt Wetterich finished with a piece of 54th. Following in hot pursuit was sophomore Matt Gerard in 58th, after a steady show of improvement with scores of 84-80-77.

Junior Tanapol Vattanapisit took 65th place on 78-85-83 shooting, while junior Korey Ward shot 78 and 80 in rounds one and two but had to withdrawal because of injury.

Xavier will begin the Memphis Intercollegiate set on March 31 as part of a 14-team field including Arkansas State, Austin Peay, Belmont, Cincinnati, Cleveland State, Dayton, Georgetown, Louisiana, Missouri State, Oakland, South Alabama, Western Kentucky, UMKC and tournament host Memphis.