Sept. 11, 2002
COLLEGE PARK, Md. -
The University of Maryland women's golf team opens its 2002 fall schedule this weekend in Lexington, Ky., as one of 15 teams competing in the University of Kentucky's Lady Kat Invitational. The tournament will take place at the University Club of Kentucky on the 6,150-yard, par 72 Big Blue Course. "There are a lot of top-20 teams in the field, so we'll see where we stand right away," said fourth-year head coach Jason Rodenhaver.
The teams competing this weekend are:
Alabama
Arkansas
Cal State-Northridge
Illinois State
Kentucky
Louisville
Maryland
Miami
Mississippi
Mississippi State
Northern Kentucky
Penn State
Richmond
South Florida
Tennessee
Terps At A Glance
Freshman Alex Casi (East Palestine, Ohio), senior Erin Clasper (North Patomac, Md.), and juniors Kara Gropler (Franklin Lakes, N.J.), Marie Harper (West Point, Va.), and Katie Redeker (Pepper Pike, Ohio) will compete in the tournament.
The lone freshman on the team, Casi "is going to have an immediate impact," Rodenhaver said.
Clasper is coming off a summer in which she competed in the U.S. Women's Amateur. Playing in all five tournaments last spring, she had two top ten finishes. Harper and Redeker also competed in all five spring tournaments.
This marks the first year since the program's inception in 1999 that the team will not open the season at the Unlimited Potential/Bay Tree Classic in Myrtle Beach, S.C.
This is the first full four-year senior class for the Terps, who began play just four years ago. Carter Crowther (Kilmarnock, Va.), Jennifer Gibson (Havertown, Pa.), and Holly Thornton (Delran, N.J.) join Clasper, the team captain.
The Terps look to improve upon what Rodenhaver called a "disappointing" 2001-02 season. While the team's average did not decline, it also did not improve. We just couldn't get it all together at once," Rodenhaver said.
About Coach Rodenhaver
In his fourth season as head coach, Jason Rodenhaver is the only coach the Maryland women's golf team has ever known.
Rodenhaver played three years for Maryland after transferring from Southern Methodist University in Dallas, where he played one season. As team captain in 1994, his senior year, Rodenhaver led the Terps to a fifth place finish at the ACC Tournament, and played in the 1994 NCAA Tournament.
In his eighth year of coaching, Rodenhaver was named head coach of the women's team on November 19, 1998 after serving as the assistant coach of the men's team for four-and-a-half seasons.
Rodenhaver says his most memorable moment as a coach was leading the women's team to victory at the James Madison Lady Dukes Invitational in Spring 2001. It was the first team victory in Maryland women's golf history.
