Sept. 22, 2006

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Salbasgeon Suites Invitational
Highlands Ranch GC - Highlands Ranch, Colo.
Sept. 25-26, 2006
Hosted by University of Denver

This Week
The University of Northern Colorado women's golf team returns to action early next week when they compete at the Salbasgeon Suites Invitational hosted by the University of Denver and held at the Highlands Ranch Golf Course.

The Bears finished 13th at the event a year ago. This year's field includes host Denver along with Colorado State, Memphis, Missouri, Tulsa, Baylor, Texas Tech, UC Davis, BYU, North Texas, UALR, San Diego State and Ball State.

Last Time Out
Northern Colorado opened its season, its first-year in the Big Sky Conference and first under new head coach Brandon White, with a 16th place finish at the Ptarmigan/Ram Fall Classic held at the Ptarmigan Country Club and hosted by Colorado State.

The event was won by Colorado, who topped Baylor by a lone stroke. The field included five fellow Big Sky Conference schools, with Eastern Washington taking the honest honors among those schools with a sixth place finish. Montana was 10th, Montana State 12th, Portland State three shots back in 13th and Weber State 17th, six strokes behind the Bears.

Individually, senior Kelley Newton was the team's top finisher, placing 54th overall with a score of 235 (+19). After a 10-over par score in Monday's first round, Newton rebounded with rounds of +4 and +5 to close the event. She was a stroke ahead of redshirt junior Regina Rodriguez (60th) and four strokes ahead of junior Jenny Henderson (68th). Sophomore Heather Daviner was 75th (+27) while Shayna Godfrey was 79th (+29). Long Beach State's Kay Hoey was the individual medalist (-7).

Bears Officially Members of the Big Sky
The 2006-07 season marks the first in the Big Sky Conference for the University of Northern Colorado. The Bears are not eligible for the Big Sky or NCAA Championships this season but are eligible beginning with the 2006-07season.

White in First Season as Head Coach
Brandon White enters his first season as Bears head coach in 2006-07. White, only the second coach in program history, is a Greeley native and was a standout at Greeley Central High School and also at Pepperdine University. White was the 2000 West Coast Conference Freshman of the Year, completed PGA Qualifying School and was a member of the Grey Goose/Gateway Tour from summer 2003 through winter 2005.

National Rankings
In the final Golfweek national rankings of last season, Northern Colorado is ranked 141st out of 234 Division I teams in the first set of GolfWeek rankings (Sept. 20). The Bears were ranked 147th at the end of the 2006-07 season.

Next Up
The Bears will compete at the Huskie Classic hosted by Northern Illinois on Oct. 1-2 in Huntley, Ill.