After competing with mostly Midwestern teams in the first few tournaments of the 2005-06 season, the Notre Dame women's golf team will face several national powers this weekend in the Las Vegas Collegiate Showdown at the Anthem Country Club in Las Vegas, Nev.
The field for the tournament will feature three teams in the golfstat.com top 10 and 11 teams in the top 35, including No. 3 UCLA, No. 4 Pepperdine and No. 5 Arkansas.
The No. 35 Irish come into the tournament only the eleventh best team by ranking, but head coach Debby King said she feels the team could finish much higher than that.
"We looked at it and we see about maybe five teams that are a little bit out of reach, then there's about six teams that in about the same boat we are and about five teams that are behind us," she said. "That means if we beat the teams that are in the same boat and take down three of the teams that are ahead of us, we can get third. I think that's very possible."
King will send a familiar lineup onto the course. Senior Katie Brophy, Junior Noriko Nakazaki, Sophomore Jane Lee, Senior Lauren Gebauer and freshman Lisa Maunu will compete for the Irish.
King said she was expecting a very different type of course in the Nevada desert from the Warren Course in Northern Indiana, but she said the Anthem course will not be a major adjustment for the Irish.
"We thought there would be Bermuda grass, but there isn't," she said. "It's really much more like we have at the Warren. The rough [in Las Vegas] is really different though. It's more like a desert. There are rocks and tumbleweed-like bushes."
The Irish will tee off at 8 a.m. today with second and third rounds Tuesday and Wednesday.
