The time has come for the Ohio Valley Conference to anoint a new king and queen of swing.

The 11 schools in the conference will commence at Decatur Country Club in Decatur, Ala., for the OVC Tournament.

Both the Eastern men’s and women’s teams are playing the spoiler role as neither gender has ever won a conference title.

The defending OVC champion Jacksonville State will look to repeat on its dominating performance last year, winning for four strokes and having a seven-stroke lead after 36 holes.

The Gamecocks are returning the individual medalist and arguably one of the best overall players in the southern region in Matias Anselmo.

The native of Buenas Aires, Argentina, shot a 7-over-par 226 along with teammate Nick Mackay, but the Gamecocks lost Mackay to graduation. Anselmo was named the 2004 OVC Player of the Year and finished his season by posting a tournament best 67 in the second round of the 2004 East Regional Tournament.

“I think the foreign players we’ve recruited have had better fundamental skills than the domestic kids here,” Jacksonville State head coach James Hobbs said. “Their short game is far superior.”

Anselmo will be sent off last, going off at 10:32 a.m. eastern time.

Thirty minutes earlier, Anselmo’s highest competition for the conference title Robert Dinwiddie will start his journey and will try to make Anselmo look at the scoreboard more than once.

The Tennessee State senior from England knows what it feels like to be a champion, having won the 2002 OVC medalist honors as a freshman. He will try to begin and end his college career as a conference champion.

The OVC men’s champion will earn an automatic berth into a regional site most likely being the NCAA East Regional at the University Golf Course hosted by Tennessee. The conference titleholder will join Duke, Kentucky and Princeton as that trio as already earned automatic berths.

Murray State will be the women’s team to watch as they try to win their fourth championship in a row and seventh in nine years.

The Lady Racers are led by seniors Nikki Orazine (Paducah, KY) and Santie Koch (Potgietersrus, South Africa) have been one-two on the OVC leader board all season, finishing with scoring averages of 76.6 and 76.9 respectively.

Orazine is the defending OVC medalist champion as she led Murray State to a 15-stroke victory in the team competition.

Koch finished last season’s event tied for 13th but is coming into the season finale with more momentum than any other player in the OVC.

This is the first season that the OVC women’s golf championship with receive an automatic berth to one of the three NCAA Regional sites but most likely the East Regional hosted by the University of Florida Golf Course in Gainesville, Fla.

The OVC champion will be joined by Duke, Illinois State, Auburn and Princeton who have already won their conference titles.