HATTIESBURG, Miss.  – The University of South Alabama women's golf team will travel to Hattiesburg, Miss., Monday to open play in the 20th Annual Lady Eagle Invitational at the Hattiesburg Country Club.  The two-day, 36-hole event will be played at par 72 and 6,111 yards.

The first round will consist of 18 holes Monday, and the tournament will conclude with an 18-hole final round Tuesday. Live scoring for the event will be available at Golfstat.com.

"The Hattiesburg Country Club is a great, older-style layout, very similar to Azalea City and the Country Club of Mobile," Coach Jackson said. "It has some challenges similar to our courses in that there is a lot of undulation on the course and you have to be able to hit different shots from different lies. It forces you to think around the golf course and mentally be in the game all the way around."

All seven team members will be traveling to Hattiesburg with the lineup featuring Ashleigh Ryals (76.06), Caroline Beebe (80.81), Carianne Wright (76.19), Elisa Axelsen (75.60) and Anna Lesher (76.81). Ingrid Hagen (77.00) and Jordan Knight (81.83) will be competing as individuals.

"We've been focusing on slowing down if things aren't going quite right and making sure we're prepared to hit the next shot," Jackson stated. "As golfers we tend to speed things up and think too quickly if we're having a bad hole; it's nothing we do intentionally, just the nature of the game."

The tournament will consist of 14 competitors: tournament host Southern Miss, UAB, Central Arkansas, Houston Baptist, Jackson State, Louisiana-Monroe, Memphis, Murray State, New Orleans, South Alabama, Stephen F. Austin, Texas-Pan American, Western Kentucky and William Carey.
 The 19th Annual Lady Eagle Invitational was won by Southern Miss last spring, while the individual title was taken by Alex Alang of Memphis. South Alabama has previously claimed the team title championship in this event (1996, '98).

USA has recorded top-10 finishes in every tournament this season, and posted its lowest round of the year (297) at the second Annual Bulldog Invitational in the fall. The Jags carry a 305.06 team stroke average into the tournament, while Ryals leads the team with a 76.06 stroke average in 16 rounds, which sits in 16th in the Sun Belt Conference

In their last event, the USA Women's Invitational, the Jaguars finished third in a field of 15 schools as Axelsen and Wright tied for seventh place individually.

"We played pretty solid at our home event those last two rounds," Jackson said. "However, we can improve on finishing some rounds. Some girls were under par and didn't quite finish it off to stay under par; playing solid golf, one through seven would be an expectation for this tournament."

For more information about South Alabama athletics, check back with www.usajaguars.com.  Season tickets for all Jaguar athletic events can be purchased by calling (251) 461-1USA (1872).