Sept. 11, 2002

Live Event Scoring

COLUMBIA, S.C. – The 17th-ranked South Carolina women’s golf team has finished qualifying and is ready to start the 2002-03 season in the NCAA Fall Preview, Sept. 15-17, on the campus of Purdue University in Lafayette, Ind. The prestigious tournament features most of the 2002 NCAA Championships teams and is played on the same course of the 2003 NCAA Championships, to be held May 20-23, 2003.

Coach Kristi Coggins’ squad finished qualifying earlier this week and will take the following individuals to the tournament: senior Kristy McPherson, junior Adrienne Gautreaux, freshman Erica Battle, junior Marci Robinson and sophomore Tiffany Catafygiotu. Four of the five individuals heading to Indiana are from the Palmetto State while two – Battle (Irmo) and Robinson (Spring Valley) – are from the Midlands.

The Lady Gamecocks captured the 2002 SEC crown in record-setting fashion, breaking both school and conference records in the process. USC advanced to the NCAA Championships for the second-consecutive season – including the seventh postseason appearance in eight years for a Coggins-coached USC team – and finished 23rd in the final 2002 poll.

Four of five starters return for Coggins, including two-time defending SEC champion and first team All-America McPherson. The Conway, S.C., native was the MVP of the USA-Japan Collegiate Golf Matches this summer and qualified for the U.S. Women’s Amateur Championship along with Gautreaux and Battle. Robinson and senior Kacy Thompson also return this season after playing in every Carolina tournament a year ago.