Lady Vols golf faces tough road in 2011-12

The University of Tennessee women's golf team announced its 2011-12 schedule on July 12, and it appears to be one formulated for a squad intent on competing for a national championship.

"This year we have a really competitive schedule," said UT's veteran head coach of 12 years Judi Pavon. "We are going to have a strong team, so we have put together a very challenging schedule so we can prepare ourselves for postseason through the regular season."

Having wrapped up the 2010-11 campaign slated No. 10 in both the final Golfstat rankings and the Golfweek ratings, as well as No. 12 in the final Golf World/NGCA Coaches Poll, the Big Orange will look to put together a fourth consecutive trip to the NCAA Championships led by All-American players Erica Popson and Nathalie Mansson. Tennessee will also welcome back rising junior Sara Monberg and rising sophomores Kaitlyn Rohrback and Chessey Thomas.

The Lady Vols will take part in two tournaments in September beginning with the Cougar Classic (Sept. 11-13) in Charleston, S.C., then onto the Fall Preview (Sept. 23-25) in Nashville.

"The Fall Preview over at Vanderbilt will be a highlight of the fall," said Pavon. "The top-12 finishers from nationals last year and the top-10 ranked teams in the country get invited so we are excited to be going to that. That will be a really strong field and a good opportunity to see the golf course that the national championship will be on."

The Big Orange will then travel to North Carolina to compete in the UNC Tar Heel Invitational Oct. 7-9 before returning to Knoxville to wrap up the regular season by hosting the Mercedes-Benz SEC/Pac 12 Challenge.

The team will experience a four-month hiatus before returning for spring competition at the Darius Rucker Intercollegiate Invitational, March 2-4, in Hilton Head, S.C. The Lady Vols will follow that up with the LSU Classic in Baton Rouge, La., the next weekend.

Then the Big Kahuna will take place. Tennessee will take part in the Maui Spring Invitational over March 26-27 at the Kapula Bay Course in Hawaii.

"We haven't been (to Hawaii) in five or six years so the players are really looking forward to that," said Pavon. "Hawaii put together a pretty strong field so there will be two or three really good teams there that we'll face so it will be another opportunity for good competition."

The team will close out the regular season April 6-8 at the Bryan National Collegiate Invitational hosted by UNC-Greensboro.