Hoosiers open 2001 season at Northern Invitational

The Hoosiers will finally start their season this weekend in Champaign, Ill., at the Northern Invitational. Their original opening tournament, the Mary Fossum Invitational, was postponed in the wake of terrorist attacks on the United States. Head coach Sam Carmichael will fill out his lineup with sophomore Karen Dennison in the top spot, followed by fellow sophomores Mary Lidester and Danah Ford, junior Cara Stuckey and senior captain Tiffany Fisher. Sophomore Ambry Bishop will travel with the team to compete as an individual. \n"The outlook is good, although we haven't played yet," Carmichael said. "The kids were real anxious to play but we'll take the same lineup to the Northern. It's a tournament we'd like to play well in. It's a little bit of a preview of what's coming up. It'll be a good tournament and it'll be good for us to go over and have a good experience."\nAlso competing at the invitational are Bradley, Illinois State, Kent State, Northern Illinois, Southern Illinois, Ohio, Penn State, Minnesota, Michigan, Northwestern, Wisconsin, Iowa and host Illinois.\nThe tournament will be played at the 5,842-yard, par-72 Stone Creek Golf Club, the same site hosting the Big Ten conference championship April 26-28, 2002. \nMichigan State, Ohio State and Purdue aren't among the competing 14 schools because they are instead competing in a NCAA preview meet in Seattle, Wash.\n"It's one of the main tournaments that we'd really like to win," said Fisher. "But there are a lot of good schools in the Big Ten, so it'll be a good opener for our team. We'll see if we're ready to compete and how well we're going to play this year."\nNone of the Hoosiers have competed on the course before, but Carmichael is familiar with the terrain. \n"The weather, the wind will be a big factor over there," Carmichael said. "Champaign's kind of flat, no hills, nothing to stop that wind from coming across. It'll be a big factor, but we worked on those kind of shots a lot last year with most of the kids, so I think they'll be going over there with the ability to hit some of those shots."\nThe team will approach the tournament with a strengthened short game, following the recent opening of their state-of-the-art short game practice facility at the IU Foundation. \nThe Hoosiers used their time off to grow as a team in preparation for the Northern Invitational, and for the rest of the season. \n"It was disappointing, because I thought we were ready then, but now we're even more ready," said Ford. "We all had fun, we all really joined in as a team and got to know each other even better."\n"I wouldn't say that it was disruptive at all," said Fisher. "Last weekend was a really good weekend for us. We just played and got to relax a little bit instead of having a weekend of competition. It was a nice way to bring the team even closer together. It was a little disappointing because we all wanted to play, but we all understood the situation."\n Carmichael said he is pessimistic that the Mary Fossum Invitational will be played at a later date, because of time constraints. \n "I doubt if it will be rescheduled, really there's not much place to fit it into the calendar right now," he said. "At this point, I doubt if we can reschedule that. However, I have been looking to see if there's someone that can take the place of the two days we didn't get to play. Hopefully, we can do that."\nFor now, the Hoosiers' focus is set on the Northern Invitational.\n"We're looking pretty good," said Dennison. "We're excited to compete and know we can compete and go for the win. But we're definitely looking to get off to a good start to the season."\nContact staff reporter Gavin Lesnick at sports@idsnews.com \nor 855-0760.