April 16, 2004

Fort Worth, Texas - The TCU women's golf team will attempt to lay claim to the Conference USA title beginning Monday, April 19 when the Horned Frogs host the Greenwood Office Outfitters 2004 Conference USA Women's Golf Championship at Shady Oaks Country Club. With nine conference schools participating, the three-day 54-hole tournament runs from Monday through Wednesday and is free and open to the public.

Under Head Coach Angie Ravaioli-Larkin, TCU has finished first or second in the conference tournament in each of the last six years. TCU won a Conference USA title in 2002 and a Western Athletic Conference crown in 1998. Last year USF edged TCU for the league title by one stroke: 912 to 913 in Tampa, Fla. TCU has had the conference medalist in each of the last two years, as Brooke Tull (2002) and D'Rae Ward (2003) claimed back-to-back titles.

Cincinnati, East Carolina, Louisville, Memphis, Southern Miss, Tulane, UAB and USF will also compete at the championship. Tulane and TCU are both ranked in the nation's top 35 heading into the tournament. Teams will play 18 holes on Monday and Tuesday beginning at 8:00 a.m. and on Wednesday starting at 7:30 a.m. Teams will be grouped in threesomes and will tee off from No. 1 in 10-minute intervals. The Frogs begin teeing off at 9:40 a.m on Monday. Former TCU golfer Angela Stanford, a four-time All-American, will serve as the C-USA Tournament's starter each day.

"We are really excited to host in our hometown and to play in front of our home crowd," Coach Ravaioli-Larkin said. "We don't get that opportunity very often and to do it in a championship situation is great. We've had tremendous support from the community, Shady Oaks, TCU, and alumni. Shady Oaks is a championship facility and all the teams will love playing it. Greenwood, the title sponsor, really came through and allowed for us to make this a first-class event. The team is really getting fired up for the upcoming week."

The Horned Frogs form a young squad, with lone senior Brooke Tull leading the way. She is currently rated 26th nationally according to the Golfweek/Sagarin ratings system, the highest of any Conference USA golfer, and has finished in the top 10 seven times this year, laying claim to two individual titles. A Georgetown, Texas native, Tull has a team-best 73.81 stroke average with a low round of 67.

Camille Blackerby, a freshman from Breckenridge, Texas, has a stroke average of 76.70 and a 4.0 GPA. A three-time 3A Texas state high school golf champion, her collegiate career-best finish is a sixth-place tie at the Central District Invitational.

Freshman Catherine Matranga, a local talent from Paschal High School in Fort Worth, has made appearances in several of the Frogs' spring tournaments this season, garnering a 79.25 stroke average. She tied for 28th in the Dr. Thompson Rainbow Tournament, marking her career-best finish.

Stacey Bieber -- one of the Horned Frog golf team's first international players, hailing from Winnipeg, Canada -- has helped TCU to top-10 team finishes several times throughout the season thanks to her stroke average of 80.44. The Tulane Invitational provided Bieber's best finish, a tie for 19th.

The final member of TCU's Conference USA Tournament squad is Elin Emanuelsson -- a native of Nacka, Sweden -- who has made herself a consistent presence on the Horned Frog roster. She rounds out the squad with a 80.90 stroke average. Her best finish came in the Tulane Invitational, when she broke the top 20 with her tie for 19th.

Live scoring, which features scorecards and leaderboards for teams and individuals, will be available throughout the event at www.golfstat.com. Individual tee times can also be accessed prior to each round. Shady Oaks Country Club (Par 72; 6,197 yards) is located at 320 Roaring Springs Drive in Fort Worth. For more information regarding the Greenwood Office Outfitters 2004 Conference USA Women's Golf Championship, please visit www.gofrogs.com.

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