The Vanderbilt women’s golf team begins its season Friday at the prestigious NCAA Fall Preview in Opelika, Alabama and the sixth ranked Commodores will not have the luxury of an easy exhibition opener.

Instead, this rugged 18-team field will have the top 10 teams in Golfweek’s first ranking of the new season, including top rated Duke and No. 2 UCLA.  A year ago, Vanderbilt tied for second in this special tournament behind the outstanding play of Sarah Jacobs, who placed second individually.

  “We understand that many of the best teams in the country will be there,” says fourth year Coach Martha Freitag, “but we always compete with the goal of winning and that is what we will be thinking as we tee it up Friday morning.”

 Freitag will take a five-person squad consisting of “three veterans that could each become All-Americans this year” and two freshmen making their collegiate golf debut.

 Seniors Sarah Jacobs and Courtney Wood and sophomore May Wood lead the team.  Courtney Wood earned first-team all-SEC and honorable mention All-America honors last year while both Jacobs and May Wood have been second-team all-SEC picks in the past. 

 “All three of our veterans are capable of having All-America years,” Freitag says.  “They all have high goals and each of them will be a threat to win every tournament they play this year.”

 Chris Brady and Kristen Svicarovich make their collegiate entry in this meet and Freitag believes both are positioned to play well.

 “Both freshmen have played at a high level and enter Vanderbilt with very polished games,” Freitag says.  “I don’t expect them to miss a beat.  About the only significant adjustment is learning to play team golf — which often is more becoming adjusted to schedule differences such as arriving at the course early if a teammate has an early tee time.  Otherwise, the game is the same.”

 Top-ranked Duke and No. 2 UCLA are the early teams to watch but the rest of Golfweek’s Top 10 includes, in order, Ohio State, Oklahoma State, Texas, Vanderbilt, Tennessee, Arizona, Florida and Georgia. 

 The rest of the field includes outstanding teams such as Wake Forest, Tulane, Pepperdine, host Auburn, North Carolina, Oklahoma, New Mexico and Southern Cal.

 Vanderbilt is paired with Duke and Pepperdine Friday with the first Commodore set to play at 9:30 a.m. on the Grand National course.