Spartan Women's Golf Earns Bid To NCAA Central Regional

May 1, 2006

EAST LANSING, Mich. - The Michigan State women's golf team has earned a berth in the NCAA Central Regional, the NCAA Division I women's golf committee announced Monday afternoon. The Spartans will head to Texas A&M University, host of the Central Regional, May 11-13 to play at the Traditions Club. This marks the eighth consecutive year MSU has made postseason action.

"This is another great accomplishment for our program, and at the same time our team has the expectation to go to regionals every year," said MSU head coach Stacy Slobodnik-Stoll. "It does show the consistency of the program. Our goal is to qualify for the NCAA Championships, year in and year out.

"We gave it a good run at the Big Ten Championships over the weekend, but our team knows it has to get better each day," Slobodnik-Stoll continued. "We can't leave any shots out on the golf course. Our team is hungry and understands the challenge that lies ahead at regionals."

The NCAA Women's Golf Championships are divided into three regional sites and conclude with the finals May 23-26 at the Scarlet Course at Ohio State University. Each regional site hosts 21 teams and three individuals, with the top eight teams and two individuals in each region advancing to the finals. MSU is seeded ninth in the Central Regional.

The complete field for the Central Regional (in order of seeds) is as follows: Duke, Southern California, Pepperdine, Texas A&M, Florida, Oklahoma State, Kent State, Ohio State, Michigan State, SMU, TCU, Missouri, Baylor, Tulsa, Nebraska, Northwestern, Texas, Birmingham-Southern, Jacksonville State, Jackson State and St. Francis.

The par-72, 6,289-yard Traditions Club Course, designed by Jack Nicklaus and Jack Nicklaus II, opened in 2004 in Bryan, Texas.

"We've never played this course," said Slobodnik-Stoll, "but our men's team played it last month, so they can give us some pointers."

MSU enters the NCAA Central Regional after placing third at the Big Ten Championships in Bloomington, Ind. The Spartans, ranked No. 27 in the Golfweek/Sagarin rankings, won the Mary Fossum Invitational in September and placed among the top three in four of their 10 tournaments.

Individually, Sara Brown was named to the All-Big Ten first team after tying for second at the conference championships. Brown leads the team with a 74.26 stroke average and is ranked No. 48 nationally. Joining Brown in the regional will be senior Dayna Burleigh, juniors Heather Rose and Rachel Meikle, and freshman Holly Niederkohr.

Live stats of the NCAA Central Regional will be available at www.golfstat.com.