Coach Jim Hamilton's University of Evansville men's golf team is getting in its final practice rounds prior to the start of the State Farm Missouri Valley Conference Championship. The 54-hole tournament takes place Monday and Tuesday at Dalhousie Golf Club in Cape Girardeau, Mo. Southern Illinois University is the host.

Dalhousie was ranked as the "#1 Course in the State of Missouri" by Golf Digest in its Best in State Ranking - 2007/2008.

The Aces are counting on a pair of freshmen and a pair of upperclassmen to continue their solid play into the MVC Championship. Freshman Neal Millay and junior Christian Poling lead the squad with 75.9 averages (both players have 1,898 strokes through 25 rounds in 2008-09). Millay finished sixth in a field of 56 last month at the Butler Spring Invitational with rounds of 78 and 73. He also shot the lowest round of 2008-09 by an Evansville player with a 68 last fall at the Skyhawk Classic, finishing fourth out of 90. Poling has finished in the top half of six of UE's last seven tournaments, including a fourth place finish among 95 golfers at the Butler Fall Invitational.

Freshman Griffin Wood is right behind those two with a 76.0 average. Wood has been Evansville's leader in the last two tournaments, finishing 12th in a field of 70 at the Tennessee State Intercollegiate and 36th out of 85 at the Adidas Hoosier Invitational. The 'old man' on the team is senior Matt Hunsaker, who has one of the top five career averages in school history. He is the number four man on this season's squad with a 76.7 average.

"We've played well in our last three tournaments as a team, and hopefully that carries over into the MVC tournament," said Hamilton, whose squad has finished third out of 13, fifth out of 12, and seventh out of 16 in its last three outings. Wichita State ran away with the team title in 2008, winning by 24 shots. Evansville was fifth in the nine-team event, led by the eighth place finish of senior Kyle Reddington.