The Valparaiso University women’s golf team completed its final tune-up prior to hosting the Missouri Valley Conference Championship on Monday with the final round of the Indiana State Spring Invite. Freshman Payton Hodson (Middleton, Wis. / Middleton) led her team in Monday’s round.

How It Happened

• Hodson carded a 79 on Monday to lead Valpo. The rookie finished with a 36-hole score of 164, tied for 61^st.
• Valpo’s best two-round score came courtesy of Kayla Krueger (Spring Lake, Mich. / Spring Lake), who finished at 157 to tie for 40^th. Krueger stroked an 81 on Tuesday.
• Kylie Shoemake (Schererville, Ind. / Lake Central) and Tiffany Curtis (Crown Point, Ind. / Crown Point) finished tied for 46^th as they posted scores of 159 in the event.
• As a team, Valpo finished 11^th at 639, two strokes in back of 10^th-place Dayton and three strokes ahead of 12^th-place Eastern Illinois. Valpo compiled a team score of 325 in the second and final round of the tournament on Monday.

Inside the Round

• Hodson became the fourth different Valpo player to turn in a score in the 70s in this tournament.
• Hodson posted her best score of the spring, but the 79 was still three strokes off her career watermark, which was set this past fall at the Loyola Fall Invitational.
• Valpo showed improvement in this tournament as four individuals carded scores in the 70s. In its last tournament (the Saluki Invitational March 24-25), no player had a round lower than 80.

Up Next

The Missouri Valley Conference Championship will commence on Sunday, April 14, the first day of the three-round, three-day event following a practice round on Saturday. The tournament will be hosted by Valpo at Sand Creek Country Club in Chesterton. The Sunday round will get underway with tee times beginning at 8:30 a.m. Live scoring will be available via GolfStat.