April 20, 2008

By Kyle Herm
www.SIUSalukis.com

CARBONDALE, Ill. - The Saluki men's golf team travels to Davenport, Iowa for the two-day spring season finale Missouri Valley Conference Championship tournament Monday and Tuesday, April 21-22. SIU will look to claim its first league title in program history.

Southern Illinois was picked to finish fifth by the MVC head coaches in the conference championship hosted by Northern Iowa at the par-71, 6,278-yard Davenport Country Club.

The two-day tournament will feature 36 holes on Monday, beginning with an 8 a.m. shotgun start, followed by a final18-hole round on Tuesday at 8 am.

SIU enters the tournament coming off its best finish of the spring season, after placing second overall at the 11-team Fighting Illini Spring Invite in Urbana, Ill. last weekend.

Southern Illinois shot better than UNI, Illinois State, and Bradley en route to its fourth second place finish of the 2007-08 season.

"I really feel like we're playing the best golf of the spring right now, and we're excited to compete," said head coach Leroy Newton. "We've just got to focus on finishing our rounds strong like we've done the last two weeks."

The Salukis have moved into the upper tier of the MVC during the last four years, and placed in the top four in each of the last four conference tournaments, including a fourth place finish last year.

Participating for SIU will be juniors Todd Obergoenner, John Danielson and Phillip Collier, and sophomores Blake Driskell and Jordan Cox.

Driskell will be the only Saluki golfer with previous playing experience in the MVC Championship, after placing tied for 26th overall with a 54-hole total of 230 last year during his freshman campaign.

The tournament scores and standings can be followed live on-line at www.golfstat.com