Griz open spring season in Fresno

The Montana women's golf team will open its spring season next week when the Grizzlies compete at the Fresno State Classic. The two-day, three-round tournament will be played at the San Joaquin Country Club, with 15 teams playing two rounds on Monday and one on Tuesday.

The tournament is now in its 12th year. The host Bulldogs have won the last two tournaments and four of the first 11.

This year's field features four teams from the Big Sky, with Montana being joined by Idaho, Portland State and Sacramento State. Idaho topped last month's preseason coaches' poll. Sacramento State was picked fourth, Portland State seventh, Montana 10th.

Some of the other teams competing will be Boise State, Florida Gulf Coast, Georgetown and Rutgers.

It's already March, which means the Big Sky Conference championship is already right around the corner, just eight weeks away, and Montana is competing for the first time. In comparison, Fresno State, which played twice in February, will be playing in its third tournament of the season next week.

"Ideally I'd like to play once or twice in February, once or twice in March and then once in April before conference, but the schedule is what it is, so we'll go with it," said first-year coach Matt Higgins, who took over the program last August when the 2015-16 schedule was already set.

"Most of these schools, if not all of them, have played at least one tournament, but that's out of our control. Instead we need to worry about ourselves. How did we do with what we wanted to work on? What did we learn the first day, and how can we apply it to the second?"

Montana played five tournaments last fall and finished in the bottom half of the team standings in all of them, as the Grizzlies got familiar with a new coach and vice versa. The team had a four-month break from competition and now will take on a schedule of five tournaments in an eight-week window.

"It's going to be a lot of tournaments in a short amount of time, but it turned out to be a blessing in disguise to wait until the first week of March to compete. That allowed us to do some work that we needed to get done," said Higgins.

"I think we're now as prepared as can be. I know the girls are ready to get out there and compete. They've had a good month to practice and get focused for this tournament."

Montana played 13 rounds over the course of five tournaments in the fall. Five of those rounds produced scores higher than 320. Just two were better than 310. The team had a fall average of 315.7, which is why the Grizzlies were never in contention.

"If we're going to improve from the fall, we need to eliminate some of the big numbers and stay focused on the things we can control. Things are going to happen that are out of our control, but we can't let that affect how we play," said Higgins.

"And our short game needs to improve from where we were last fall. If we can improve our putting and chipping and the shots 100 yards and in, we're going to save a ton of strokes."

Montana will use a lineup Monday and Tuesday of senior Hayley Bingham, junior Alexa Schendelman, sophomore Hailey Hoagland and freshmen Baylee Barckley and Sadie Crippen.

Hoagland led the team in the fall with a scoring average of 78.4. She was followed closely by Barckley, who averaged a 78.6 and finished the fall on fire. She carded scores of 74, 75 and 74 over the team's final three rounds.

"When we finished our fall schedule, Baylee said she didn't want it to end because she was playing so well," said Higgins. "With what I've seen, she's picked it right back up."

Crippen traveled the opposite path in the fall. She shot a 73 at the Hobble Creek Fall Classic in her first collegiate round, but by the team's fourth tournament, the Pat Lesser Harbottle Invitational in Lakewood, Wash., she had rounds of 90, 85 and 83.

She did not make the travel team for the final fall tournament, the Cal Poly Lady Mustang Intercollegiate at Arroyo Grande, Calif.

"Sadie has made her way back into the top five," said Higgins. "We made a swing adjustment, and she really worked hard on that over the winter. She's been striking the ball really well.

"Now it's about finding that confidence during a tournament round. Can she trust what she's put in place under the gun of a tournament situation? That will be the real test for her. She's very focused and determined, so I think she can do it."

Montana will play at the Sacramento State Invitational in Roseville, Calif., March 21-22, then at the Wyoming Cowgirl Classic in Maricopa, Ariz., and Bobcat Spring Invitational in Goodyear, Ariz., the first two weeks of April.

That will lead into the three-day Big Sky Conference championship April 18-20 at the Boulder Creek Golf Club in Boulder City, Nev. It will be the first time since 2008 that the Big Sky tournament isn't being played in Chandler, Ariz.

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Players Mentioned

Baylee Barckley

Hayley Bingham

Sadie Crippen

Hailey Hoagland

Alexa Schendelman

University of Montana Athletics