Lady Linksters Set For Action In NCAA East Regional
Leading the way for the Lady Bulldogs will be freshman Sofie Andersson. Andersson led MSU at the Southeastern Conference Championship, firing a tournament score of 222 and tying a career best finish of fourth place. Rounding out the starting five for MSU is Beth Irwin, Natalie Booth, Anna Knutsson and Janet Dyer.
"It will be nice to solely concentrate on playing well," Sanders said. "We have only one goal in mind and that is playing or way into the national championship."
The field features 10 teams ranked in the Golfweek Top 25. The field is led by defending national champion and top-seeded Duke. Among the Top 25 in the field are No. 6 Arizona, No. 7 Auburn, No. 9 Vanderbilt, No. 14 Wake Forest, No. 15 South Carolina, No. 17 Georgia, No. 19 Tulane, No. 23 Florida State and No. 24 North Carolina. Also in the regional are South Florida, East Carolina, Furman, UNC Wilmington, N.C. State, Penn State, Western Carolina, Georgia State, St. Francis, and instate rival, Mississippi.
This is State's third NCAA Regional appearance in four years. MSU finished in 17th place at the East Regional, last year in Baton Rouge and 16th at the 1999-2000 East Regional in Columbus, Ohio.
The 2003 regional will be a three-day, 54-hole tournament with 18 holes played each day. The top eight teams and top two individuals, not on one of those eight teams, advance on to the NCAA Championships to be played May 20-23 at the Kampen Golf Course in West Lafayette, Ind.
In the first round on Thursday, May 8th, individuals will tee off at 7:30 a.m. and team times begin at 7:40 a.m. Mississippi State will tee off at 11:50 a.m. with Penn State and Mississippi on the first tee. State will tee off on day two at 7:30 a.m. on the first tee with the same group. The tournament will conclude on Saturday with tee times to be announced later.
You can follow the Lady Bulldogs via live scoring on www.golfstat.com.