April 3, 2003

The 14th ranked South Carolina Lady Gamecocks tee it off this weekend in the 31st annual Liz Murphey Collegiate Classic in Athens, Georgia. The Classic runs from Friday, April 4th through Sunday, April 6th and features 17 of the best women’s collegiate golf teams. The LMCC will be played at the 6,104-yard, par 72 University of Georgia Golf Course, the same course at which South Carolina captured the 2002 SEC Championship last April.

The five Gamecock players will begin competition Friday at 10:20 a.m. with four of the five scores counting towards the team total. Tiffany Catafygiotu will compete in the individual category.

“We had a great practice round today,” said head coach Kristi Coggins. “We feel confident on the course and are ready to tee it off on Friday. This University course is where we captured the SEC Championship last year so we’ve had success here before. I hope that we’ll shoot consistently low numbers this weekend.”

South Carolina finished fourth (out of 18 teams) in last year’s Liz Murphey Classic with Kristy McPherson finishing seventh.

South Carolina enters this weekend’s tournament after last finishing sixth, one shot back of a top five finish, in the rain shortened Bryan National Collegiate in Browns Summit, North Carolina.

Senior All-American Kristy McPherson shot a two-under par 142 to finish the 36-hole tournament in a four-way tie for first but lost in the tiebreaker to Nuria Clau of Wake Forest. McPherson registered her fourth top five performance of the season and shot a season-low 69 in the opening round. Senior Kacy Thompson finished tied for 36th place with a total score of 153. Junior Marci Robinson was next for the Lady Gamecocks finishing in a tie for 43rd place with a score of 154.