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GRINNELL, Iowa – The 2015 Midwest Conference Women’s Golf Championship gets underway on Friday as Grinnell College looks to win its third consecutive crown. 

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For the third straight year, the MWC Golf Championship will be held at Aldeen Golf Course in Rockford, Ill. 

Grinnell appears to be the prohibitive favorite to earn its third straight conference crown behind freshman twins Virshali and Vidushi Sinha.  Virshali has won three of the four tournaments she has played in this fall and sports a 73 stroke average while Vidushi has four top-five finishes and a 76.7 stroke average.  The twins are the only players in the Midwest Conference to break 80 for a round this season. 

"We have had to individualize practices quite a bit more this fall," said interim head coach Jennie Jackson.  "We have girls on our team averaging anwhere from 72-90 so the types of things that each girl is working on is very different and we have used a statistical tracking program in order to help each girl work on thier individual weaknesses.  I expect great things out of them (Sinha twins) this weekend.  They have steadily improved throughout the fall, and are excited for their first conference championship."

Sam Nakahira and Samanike Hengst are also strong contenders this weekend and are both ranked in the top-five in the league. 
As a team, the Pioneers are averaging 321.4 strokes per 18 holes which is 35 strokes better than their closest competition, Carroll University.  Carroll leads a pack of four teams that is all within 13 strokes of each other’s average this year. 

The Pioneers’ Karoline Priko, Taryn Kuless and Leah Stapleman are all averaging between 87.5 and 88.6 for the season and will lead a strong Carroll squad.  

Monmouth College won a tournament at Aldeen earlier this fall that featured conference members Fontbonne University, Lake Forest College, and Illinois College.  The Fighting Scots finished six strokes ahead of the Griffins and the Foresters and 13 ahead of the Lady Blues.  Their lineup features two All-MWC Performers from last season in Korri Crawford and Annie Sandrock. 

Individually, Illinois College’s Emily Heiser won the event with a 13-over par 85.  Heiser, who placed 10^th at last season’s Championship, is currently ranked third in the league with an 85.7 average for the season.  Her teammate, Alexis Lintker, finished second last season, just one stroke behind Grinnell’s Hailey Speck for the individual title. 

In just the program’s second season Lake Forest has made huge strides, lowering its average by nearly 30 strokes per round.  Kalay Kotasek (89 average), Anhayte Guajardo (92) and Alex Dunn have been the Foresters most consistent players this season. 

The Griffins of Fontbonne will be competing in their first MWC Championship this weekend.  They are led by Gina Falvey and Kaylee Huelsing who both have averages under 90. 

St. Norbert College will also be competing this weekend.  Jessica Dyksterhouse earned the MWC Performer of the Week award last week after finishing 17^th at the Clarke University Invite and leading the Green Knights to a third place finish. 

The Championship tees off Friday at 12:00 p.m. and continues at 10:00 a.m. on both Saturday and Sunday.