Risë (pronounced REE-suh) Alexander became the head women’s golf head coach on September 8, 2014.
She enters her 28th career year of head coaching and her fourth with the program.
This season Alexander guided the team to five top-six finishes including a fifth place finish at the Grand Canyon Invite where they set a new program record for 54-hole score with a 908.
She also guided sophomore Shweta Mansingh to a program record setting performance in the opening round of the Islander Classic where she set the program record for the lowest single round score of 67.
Alexander also helped the team lower their scoring average by more than six shots as they improved from a 319.88 in 2015-16 to a 313.79 this season.
In 2016, the Women’s Golf Coaches Association named her the recipient of the Gladys Palmer Meritorious Service Award for her contributions to the game of golf throughout her career
In 2015-16, Alexander helped the team improve from a fall scoring average of 331 to a spring scoring average of 314. She guided the team to a pair of top-five finishes as they finished in fifth place at the GCU Invitational and third at the HBU Invitational.
At the GCU Invitational, Alexander helped freshman Emma Mesta record her first collegiate victory and the program’s first individual victory since the fall of 2013. She guided Mesta to a three-round score of 221, which is tied for the third lowest three round score in program history, as she posted a second round 71, which is the fifth lowest single round score in program history.
In 2014-15, she guided the team to two top-five finishes, which included a fifth place finish at the Harold Funston Invitational and a fourth place finish at the UTB Ocelot Invitational.
Alexander helped several members of the team post career-best rounds including Melissa Bernal’s final round 70 at the Harold Funston Invitational. Bernal’s 70 tied the second lowest round in program history, just one stroke shy of the program record.
She spent 24 years in the PAC 12 Conference at Oregon State University. During her time at Oregon State, her teams have made 11 NCAA Regional appearances and one NCAA Finals appearance finishing 16th in the nation in 1998. She was named Far West District Coach of the Year after that historic season.
During her last season at Oregon State her team broke four school scoring records, one of which was the lowest team scoring average in school history of 300.5, and two individual scoring records. They finished the season ranked 66th in the Golfstat Rankings.
In her time with the Beavers, Alexander coached one All-American (Kathleen Takaishi, 1998) and five All-Pac-12 selections and had student-athletes earn NGCA All-American Scholar status 15 times and Pac-12 All-Academic honors 34 times.
Alexander has served on the National Golf Coaches Association for 14 years, spending eight years as a member of the Division I Awards Committee and six years as a member of the NGCA Board of Directors. She served as the NGCA’s (now the WCGA) President in 2009-10. In 2005, she received the NGCA Founders Award for outstanding service to the NGCA, women's collegiate golf and the local community.
Alexander competed for the Oregon State women’s golf team from 1973-77 and played in four AIAW National Championships and won two collegiate events and several amateur tournaments during her career. She also played basketball for the Beavers making her one of the few two-sport athletes in Oregon State history. She has also competed in 16 USGA National Championships during her career.
After graduating with honors from Oregon State in 1977, Alexander competed professionally until 1981 and also served as the volunteer head coach for the Beavers in 1978-79, 1982-83 and 1983-84.
As an amateur competitor, she was a semifinalist in the 1973 Western Junior Championship and also a semifinalist in the 1976 U.S. Women's Amateur. The U.S. Amateur finish exempted her from U.S. Open qualifiers for three consecutive years. In all, Alexander has competed in 16 USGA National Championships during her career.
Born in Laurel, Miss., Alexander grew up in Hot Springs, Ark., and began playing golf at the age of eight. She had a spectacular junior golf career that included two Arkansas Junior Championships, two Arkansas High School Championships and Oregon High School and Pacific Northwest Junior Championships.
Alexander now resides in McAllen, TX and has two grown children, Laura and Joey Lakowske.
