April 26, 2010

COLUMBIA, S.C. – South Carolina’s women’s golf team will advance to the postseason for the 12th consecutive year as the Gamecocks earned a bid to the NCAA East Regional, which runs May 6-8 in Greenville, N.C. The 72-team field was announced Monday afternoon by the NCAA with 24 schools competing in each of three regionals.

The NCAA field includes 10 of 12 Southeastern Conference schools with four conference foes slated to compete with the Gamecocks at Ironwood Country Club in the East Regional, hosted by East Carolina. South Carolina will join league rivals Auburn, Florida, Tennessee and Vanderbilt at the East Regional, Georgia and Ole Miss will compete in the NCAA Central Regional in Columbus, Ind., while Alabama, Arkansas and LSU are set to compete in the NCAA West Regional in Stanford, Calif. Eight teams and two individuals will advance from each regional to the 2010 NCAA Championship, which will be held May 18-21 at the Country Club of Landfall in Wilmington, N.C.

The Gamecocks, ranked 26th in the latest GolfWeek/Sagarin release, will be familiar with the regional host course as it was the site of a tri-match with East Carolina and Duke this past Saturday.

“It’s nice to be in the regional close to home,” head coach Kalen Anderson said. “And I feel fortunate that we’ve had the opportunity to play the course. It’s a very scorable course; I think we’ll see some low numbers. All of the regionals are tough, but I feel like this one is particularly strong. We’ve got to play well, but the whole team is playing well. They’re very confident right now.”

This year marks South Carolina’s 12th consecutive appearance in an NCAA Regional, dating back to 1999. It will be the 15th time overall for the Gamecocks to participate in postseason play. Last year, the Gamecocks finished 12th out of 21 teams at the 2009 East Regional in Gainesville, Fla.

The full NCAA Championship field can be accessed through NCAA.com.

NCAA WOMEN’S GOLF EAST REGIONAL

May 6-8 • Ironwood Country Club • Greenville, N.C.
Hosted by East Carolina
Auburn
Campbell
Charleston Southern
College of Charleston
Chattanooga
Coastal Carolina
Duke
East Carolina
East Tennessee State
Farleigh Dickinson
Florida
Furman
Georgia State
North Carolina
Pepperdine
South Carolina
Stetson
TCU
Tennessee
Texas Tech
Tulane
Vanderbilt
Wake Forest
Washington

Individuals
Sofia Hagsund, UNC Wilmington
Shena Yang, South Florida
Nicole Sakamoto, James Madison