Midway Eagles, IU East's Nowak competing at NAIA Women's Golf National Championship

5/17/2016 12:00:00 AM

Midway (Ky.) University, the KIAC Women's Golf Tournament champion, and IU East's Breanna Nowak, the KIAC Tournament individual medalist, are competing at the NAIA Women's Golf National Championship starting Tuesday, May 17 at Savannah Quarters Country Club in Pooler, Ga.

Below is a national championship preview courtesy of NAIA Sports Information. Follow the action online with live scoring from Golfstat and a live video stream courtesy of host SCAD Savannah.

IU East's Nowak tees off in the first round Tuesday at 7:38 a.m. The tee time for the Midway team is Tuesday at 12:34 p.m.

NAIA WOMEN'S GOLF NATIONAL CHAMPIONSHIP PREVIEW

By Scott Barker, Communications and Sports Information Intern

KANSAS CITY, Mo. – (Pairings – First Round | Second Rou nd) The 2016 NAIA Women's Golf National Championships opens action Tuesday at 7:30 a.m. EDT at the Savannah Quarters Country Club in Pooler, Ga. The 22nd annual event is a 72-hole, stroke play event that takes place over the course of four days, concluding with the final round on Friday.

The NAIA and national championships host SCAD Savannah (Ga.) are providing live scoring through Golfstat. To access the live scoring, click HERE. To access the live video stream through Stretch Internet, click HERE

Savannah Quarters Country Club, which was founded in 2001, welcomes a 144-player field for the second-time in NAIA history. The national championships field consists of 19 automatic qualifying teams, which won their respective conference, Association of Independent Institutions or unaffiliated grouping tournament titles, eight at-large selections and nine individual qualifiers. At-large teams were determined using the final regular-season Coaches' Top 25 Poll released on May 5.

The nine individual qualifiers include five automatic berths and four at-large selections. To receive an individual automatic berth, a player must win her respective conference tournament or be an All-Tournament Team honoree from the previous year's national championships that did not qualify otherwise.

In the 22-year history of the event, nine programs have captured an NAIA women's golf national championship, led by Oklahoma City's seven red banners. Seventeen teams have had individuals earn medalist honors.

First round play tees off Tuesday with the nine individual qualifiers. The trio of Cassidy Scantland of Campbellsville (Ky.), Jordyn Deardorff of Arizona Christian and Annie Smith of Bethel (Ind.) open the round at 7:30 a.m., followed by Gina Kowolchuk of Great Falls (Mont.), Hannah Stradling of Cardinal Stritch (Wis.) and Breanna Nowak of IU East (Ind.) at 7:38 a.m., and Heather Nail of Mobile (Ala.), Lucy Clark of Culver-Stockton (Mo.) and Aspen Bryant of Bethany (Kan.) teeing off at 7:46 a.m.

2015 national runner-up William Woods (Mo.) gets the teams started, as the Owls tee off at 7:54 a.m. along with Coastal Georgia and William Penn (Iowa).

Defending national champion Keiser (Fla.) looks to win its third national title, as the Seahawks tee off at 8:34 a.m.

SCAD Savannah, William Carey (Miss.) and Dakota Wesleyan (S.D.) begin its championship starting the afternoon session with its first golfer teeing off at 11:54 a.m.

2015 individual champion, Julia McQuilken of Dalton State (Ga.) looks to become the first-ever two-time individual champion in the history of NAIA Women's Golf. McQuilken shot 4-over-par 292 (74-70-71-77) for the tournament last season.. Her 72-hole total is tied for second-best all-time with Megan Woodland of Victoria (B.C.) (2012) and one stroke behind SCAD Savannah's Alazne Unzar's championship total (291) from 2014.

All teams and individuals will start from hole No. 1 due to the threat of bad weather this week.

Keiser headlines a field that includes the top 10 finishing teams from last year's field. The Seahawks entered the 2015 NAIA Women's Golf National Championships final round tied for first place and shot just the second sub-300 round to earn its second national title – first coming in 2003.

William Woods comes in as the No. 1 ranked team in the final Top 25 Coaches' Poll after claiming its 13th-straight American Midwest Conference (AMC) Tournament championship. The Owls were 22 strokes short of overcoming Keiser in last year's national championships.

The other returning top 10 teams are: SCAD Savannah, Dalton State (Ga.), Cumberlands (Ky.), Oklahoma City, Bellevue (Neb.), Wayland Baptist (Texas), USC Beaufort (S.C.) and Coastal Georgia.

Two qualifying programs outside of Oklahoma City – which have claimed seven - have claimed at least one national championship – British Columbia (4) and Keiser (formally Northwood) (2).

The Sun Conference – Keiser, SCAD Savannah, Thomas and USC Beaufort - lead all leagues with four teams represented in the field. The Southern States Athletic Conference – Coastal Georgia, Dalton State and William Carey - is second with three teams.

For more information on the 2016 NAIA Women's Golf National Championships, click here.