ROGERS -- Rogers High junior golfer Brooke Matthews will look to take the next step at the Class 7A State Tournament today and Wednesday.
The Lady Mounties golfer finished third at the state tournament as a freshman and second at state last year after losing in a playoff. Matthews is the defending state Overall champion and she must finish in the top three in the 36-hole event at the Conway Country Club to make a return trip to the Overall.
Girls State Golf Tournaments
Today
Class 3A — At Fayetteville Country Club, Fayetteville
Class 2A — At Holiday Island Country Club, Holiday Island
Class 1A — Tannenbaum Golf Club, Greer Ferry
Today-Wednesday
Class 7A — At Conway Country Club, Conway
Wednesday
Class 5A — Hot Springs Country Club, Hot Springs
Today's first round in Conway also doubles as the 7A-West Conference Tournament and Matthews is the defending conference champion.
Three other state tournaments also tee off today as the Class 1A, Class 2A and Class 3A are all 18-hole affairs. The Class 3A tourney will start at 9 a.m. at the Fayetteville Country Club. The Class 5A tournament is Wednesday while the Class 4A and Class 6A girls tournaments were held Monday.
Matthews committed to Arkansas earlier this year and the Lady Mounties junior won medalist honors in all eight tournaments she played in this season. Payton Smith will be in the No. 2 spot for Rogers while Sabra Ivey, Sydney Figenskau, Amanda Sakalares and Maggie Mosier round out the Rogers lineup.
"Brooke has played well this year and the biggest thing for her right now is to not put too much pressure on herself," said Lady Mounties coach Brenda Alexander. "The big thing for the team is to have some consistency from the threes and fours. If Brooke can have a good score and we can gets some scores in the 80s or low 90s, we would have an outside chance."
The Elkins girls golf team will be in uncharted territory today as the Lady Elks are making the school's first appearance at the Class 3A tournament. Elkins finished second at the 3A-1 District Tournament.
Jessica Boaz and Whitley Frederick have been the Lady Elks' most consistent players while LaCole Frederick and Emily Freitag have played well.
"Elkins has had girls and boys make it as individuals, plus several boys teams, but never a girls team," said Elkins coach Jeff Eddleman. "I'm real excited for them, and the girls are real excited. I'm also excited that the tournament is here in Fayetteville. Jessica has had a good year and Whitley has also been right there all year."
Paul Nielsen can be reached at [email protected] or on Twitter @NWAPaul.
Sports on 09/29/2015