"Updated" Auburn Women's Golf To Host NCAA East Regional

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AUBURN - The Auburn women's golf team received a bid to the NCAA East Regional Championship, which will be held May 9-11 at The Auburn University Club in Auburn, Ala., the NCAA Women's Golf Championship Committee announced Monday.

The Tigers are one of 72 teams that were selected to the NCAA Regional field with 24 competing at each site. The Central Regional will take place at the OU Golf Club in Norman, Okla., while the West Regional will take place at Stanford Golf Course in Palo Alto, Calif.

Auburn enters the East Regional as the No. 14 seed. The Tigers are one of six SEC teams in the field, joining Alabama, Arkansas, Tennessee, Kentucky and Ole Miss. In all, 13 of the 14 SEC teams made the NCAA Regional field with Florida and Mississippi State in the Central and Vanderbilt, Georgia, Texas A&M, LSU and South Carolina in the West.

"We are so excited to get to play in the NCAA Regional, but even more excited to showcase our great golf course and university to the other 23 teams in the field," said Auburn head coach Kim Evans. "In our field, we have eight teams ranked in the top 25 in the GolfStat rankings and 11 teams that won their conference championship. So, there are a lot of competitors and should be a tough three days of golf."

Teams ranked in the top 25 in the GolfStat rankings are No. 2 Alabama, No. 5 Arkansas, No. 8 UCLA, No. 11 North Carolina, No. 12 Virginia, No. 18 Oklahoma State, No. 20 Tulane and No. 23 Texas.

Making up the rest of the field are Notre Dame, Northwestern, Tennessee, Kentucky, Texas State, Auburn, Central Florida, Penn State, East Carolina, Florida International, Ole Miss, East Tennessee State, Tennessee-Chattanooga, James Madison, Eastern Kentucky and Alabama State.

Natalie Willie (Augusta State), Kelly Shon (Princeton), Casey Kennedy (Augusta State), Isabel Southard (Boston College), Shu-Yin Liu (Tulsa) and Kristina Merkle (Tulsa) will compete as individuals.

Auburn is advancing to its 20th NCAA Regional Championship and 18th under Evans. It is also the 18th consecutive NCAA Regional appearance for the Tigers.

"We had a pretty rough stretch there earlier in the spring, but I really liked the way we finished the season," said Evans. "We had a good tournament to finish out the regular season and outside of a difficult first round, I thought we played a great SEC Championship. I like where our team is right now, and playing on our home course is an even bigger plus."

The Tigers have competed in 20 NCAA Regional Tournaments with 13 of them being in the East Regional. Auburn has finished in the top eight, earning a NCAA Championship bid, in 13 of the 19 appearances. Auburn is hosting an NCAA Regional for the first time since 1996 when it hosted the East Regional at the Grand National Lakes Course. AU tied for fifth that year, advancing to the Championship.

"The AU Club is a great course and the staff over there has it in great shape for the tournament," said Evans. "It will be a great challenge for the teams coming in and we are looking forward to it."

A total of 378 participants have been selected for regional competition. Of these players, 126 will advance to the championships finals. Eight teams and two individuals will advance from each regional.

The championships finals will be held May 21-24 at the University of Georgia Golf Course in Athens, Ga., and will be hosted by Georgia.

For live coverage of the East Regional please visit www.GolfStat.com or follow daily updates of the Tigers on www.AuburnTigers.com.

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Good luck to our Lady Tigers!

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barely but we made into the National Championship

The Auburn women's golf team will make its first appearance in the NCAA Women's Golf National Championship since 2010 after finishing in eighth at the NCAA East Regional at the Auburn University Golf Club. The Tigers shot a 6-over 294 Saturday to finish at 13-over.

Hosted by Auburn, the NCAA East Regional was a 54-hole stroke play championship that took place at the Auburn University Club in Auburn, Ala. The par-72 course will played at 6,259 yards for the tournament. The tournament field of 24 teams included nine teams ranked in the top-25 of one of the major polls as well as 11 teams that won their conference tournament.

"They started out slow, but they made adjustments," Auburn student assistant coach Danielle Downey said. "They hung in there, and they finished well. There are some tough finishing holes, with tough pin positions. I am so proud of how they backed up yesterday's round.

"They knew the pressure. They could see the leaderboards on a couple of holes, and they knew they were on the bubble. They knew and they still got it done."

Auburn was led by junior Marta Sanz, who finished tied for 11th at 2-under 214 after shooting a 3-under 69 in the final round. Following a bogey on No. 3, Sanz birdied No. 7 to make the turn at even-par. On the back-9, Sanz led the charge to keep Auburn in the top-8 spots with birdies on Nos. 11, 13 and 17.

"Today's round was completely different than yesterday," Sanz said. "Today I couldn't hit my irons at all. I got about to about nine greens, and my putter started working. When your putter starts working, you shoot low. I made a lot of important par putts to get me going. On the back-9, I got three greens and made three birdies. I was really happy about it."

Junior Diana Fernandez finished tied for 26th at 2-over 218 after carding a final-round 76. Fernandez started the round with a bogey on No. 1, but carded a birdie on No. 4 before suffering back-to-back bogeys on Nos. 5 and 6. On the back-9, Fernandez bogeyed Nos. 11 and 14 to finish at 4-over.

Senior Carlie Yadloczky finished tied for 33rd after shooting a 2-over 74 to finish at 4-over 220 for the tournament. Freshman Jamie Yun carded a 78 tied for 73rd at 12-over 228 while sophomore Victoria Trapani tied for 96th, posting a final-round 75 to finish with a 234.

By virtue of finishing eighth, Auburn earns one of the eight spots into the NCAA Championship, set for May 21-24 at the University of Georgia Golf Course in Athens, Ga. Others advancing were Alabama, Tulane, Arkansas, Oklahoma State, Texas, Northwestern and UCLA. Princeton's Kelly Shon and Tennessee's Erica Popson advanced as individuals.