Women's golf set to play at Cardinal Cup

MURFREESBORO, Tenn. - A week after opening the season at the Dale McNamara Invitational in Tulsa, the Middle Tennessee women's golf team will look to improve at the Wild Eggs Cardinal Cup this week at the Cardinal Club in Simpsonville, Ky.

In last week's event, the Blue Raiders relied on contributions from freshman Allie Knight in the early rounds, but head coach Chris Adams expects to get more out of her upperclassman this time around.

"Obviously, I love getting the contributions from Allie as a freshman, but we need some of our other golfers to step up," Adams said. "And I certainly think they're capable. Ashley had a good tournament last week, which is nice, and I think we can expect improvement for the rest. If we can get everyone going at the same time, we're a hard team to beat."

Knight became just the second Blue Raider to card a round of par or better in her collegiate debut. The freshman posted rounds of 76 and 80 over the ensuing two days, finishing tied for 31st.

Haggard led the team with a 26th-place finish, bookending a 7-over 79 with rounds of 73 and 74 and ending at 10-over.

Karisa Akin also tied for 31st, and Olivia Love and Stephanie Smith tied for 51st and 55th, respectively.

This will be the fifth time that Middle Tennessee has competed at the Cardinal Cup, with the best team finish coming in 2007 as the Blue Raiders ended fifth out of 17.

Individually, former Blue Raider Taryn Durham posted a pair of top five finishes in both 2006 and 2007, including a two-under 214 to end in second place in 2007.

The Blue Raiders will tee off at the Cardinal Cup on Monday morning. Live scoring will be provided at Golfstat.com.

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