The Indiana State women's golf team, fresh off a fourth consecutive victory in its home tournament -- the ISU Spring Invitational -- heads to the Missouri Valley Conference Championships which will be hosted by Southern Illinois and hosted at the Dalhousie Golf Club in Cape Girardeau, Mo. The three round event begins on Sunday, April 16 and continues through Tuesday, April 18. The par-72 tournament layout at Dalhousie covers 6,214 yards.

The Sycamores are looking for the first MVC Championship victory in the history of the program, although they have finished second in two of the last three years and have a trio of second place finishes to their credit all-time. Last season at the MVC Championships in Chicago, the Sycamores recorded a team round of 287 on the second day which is the lowest team score in program history and their tournament tally of 897 is a school record.

"We are looking forward to another opportunity to win a championship this weekend," head coach Greg Towne said. "Weather could be a factor, so we will have to prepare for that as well as possible schedule disruptions. The team has continued to improve and has been building for this tournament. The team performed well in our home tournament, I am intrigued as to how that carries over at Dalhousie."

ISU currently ranks fifth in the Missouri Valley Conference statistics with a 312.81 scoring average through 27 rounds of play this season. Their best round this season came in the final round of the ISU Spring Invitational on Monday, April 10 with a score of 295. Indiana State has won two tournaments this year, the ISU Spring Invitational as well as the season opener back on Labor Day weekend at Youngstown State.

In the pre-championship poll as voted upon by the league's head coaches, the Sycamores have been picked to finish sixth at this weekend's tournament. The Sycamores garnered 53 points in the balloting, just one shy of Illinois State who received 54 and are picked fifth. Defending champion Wichita State is picked to win (93), while Bradley is second at 88. In third is host Southern Illinois (87) while Missouri State is picked fourth at 69. Behind the Sycamores are Loyola (32), Drake (29), Evansville (23) and Northern Iowa (22).

Indiana State will utilize the same starting lineup as last week in Terre Haute beginning with senior Marissa Uradomo who tied for second place at the ISU Invitational and currently ranks third in the Missouri Valley Conference with a 75.56 scoring average. Sophie Benetti has been making a late season surge highlighted by a tie for second place at the ISU Spring Invitational in which she carded a career-best round of 71 in the final round. Benetti currently ranks 52nd in the MVC with amn 82.19 stroke average.

Thilda Staubo also starts for the Sycamores and has been a consistent scorer as she ranks 25th in the MVC with a 78.59 average. Sierra Hargens has made a splash in her freshman season as she currently ranks 31st in the league with a 79.15 scoring average. Rounding out the lineup is sophomore Robyn Blanchard is 41st in the league with an average of 80.50 shots per round.

The event begins on Sunday at 11:00 a.m. (ET) with tee times starting off holes 1 and 10. The action continues on Monday also at 11 a.m. while Tuesday's final round will start at 10:00 a.m. Live scoring will be available on Golfstat.com.