April 25, 2011
LEXINGTON, Ky. – The Kentucky women’s golf team was selected to the 30th annual Division I NCAA Women’s Golf Championship on Monday. The championship will mark Kentucky’s 16th postseason appearance in school history and its second appearance since 2000.
“I’m really excited about making the field,” said Kentucky first-year head coach Golda Johansson Borst. “This really shows that the hard work we’ve put in all season long is paying off. I’ve said it before, I really pushed them this year and expected a lot out of them and they responded. I couldn’t be prouder.
“That was my goal, first and foremost, was to make it to the NCAA Tournament,” Borst said. “One of the first things I did when I came here was assess the talent, and there was no doubt in my mind we could make it to regionals. I knew we were good enough to get here.”
Kentucky will compete in the East regional, held at the LPGA International (6,271 yards, par 72) in Daytona Beach, Fla., from May 5-7. Teams will compete in a practice round May 4. The East regional is being hosted by Stetson University and the Central Florida Sports Commission. The LPGA International also held the NCAA Women’s National Championship in 2007.
The Cats will bring junior Ashlee Rose, sophomores Ashleigh Albrecht, Betsie Johnson and Heather Lott, and freshman Liz Breed to the regional. Albrecht leads Kentucky with a 75.40 scoring average, tops on the team, and was crowned co-champion at the UCF Challenge in mid-February. Johnson, a Nicholasville, Ky., native, led the Wildcats in the Southeastern Conference Championship with a 23rd-place finish.
Despite its youth, Borst said the team has enough experience to compete at regionals. When it all boils down to it, she said, it’s still golf.
“It’s still all about hitting fairways and hitting greens,” Borst said. “We just have to do our own thing, focus on each other and stay connected on the golf course. This year it hasn’t been specifically about results, but instead, what we can do to make each other better. They’ve stayed in the moment.”
The East regional will welcome 10 conference champions, including SEC foe Auburn, Michigan State, North Carolina, TCU, Coastal Carolina, Yale, Stetson, North Carolina Wilmington, Fairleigh Dickinson and Alabama State. Also competing in the East regional along with Kentucky is the region’s top seed, Alabama, as well as Purdue, California, Arizona State, Vanderbilt, Florida, Florida State, Colorado, Louisville, Ole Miss, Texas Tech, Florida International and Augusta State.
The 72-team, 18-individual NCAA Women’s Golf Championship field is split into three regions: the East (Daytona Beach), Central (Notre Dame, Ind.) and West (Auburn, Wash.). Each region will host 24 teams and six individuals not on those teams. The top eight teams from each of the three regions and the top two individuals, not on those teams, will then advance to the finals. The regional tournaments are considered preliminary rounds of NCAA championships competition. The finals will be held May 18-21 at the Traditions Club in Bryan, Texas, and will be hosted by Texas A&M.
Check out UK athletics.com for all Kentucky women’s golf news.
Team and individual seeds are listed below. Conference automatic qualifiers are indicated in parenthesis.
2011 NCAA Championship – East Regional (Daytona Beach, Fla.)
May 5-7
LPGA International (Par 72 – 6,271 yards)
Teams:
1. Alabama
2. Purdue
3. California
4. Arizona State
5. Auburn (Southeastern Conference)
6. Michigan State (Big Ten Conference)
7. North Carolina (Atlantic Coast Conference)
8. Vanderbilt
9. Florida
10. Florida State
11. Colorado
12. TCU (Mountain West Conference)
13. Louisville
14. Mississippi
15. Texas Tech
16. FIU
17. Coastal Carolina (Big South Conference)
18. Augusta State
19. Yale (The Ivy League)
20. Kentucky
21. Stetson (Atlantic Sun Conference)
22. North Carolina-Wilmington (Colonial Athletic Association)
23. Fairleigh Dickinson (Northeast Conference)
24. Alabama State (Southwestern Athletic Conference)
Individuals:
1. Shena Yang, South Florida
2. Charlotte Lorentzen, Georgia State
3. Stefanie Kenoyer, Furman
4. Kelly Shon, Princeton
5. Maria Ronderos, Miami (Florida)
6. Leigh Whittaker, College of Charleston
