May 4, 2004

The 28th-ranked University of South Carolina women’s golf team makes its 10th appearance in the NCAA postseason with this weekend’s 2004 NCAA East Regionals, held at the Mission Inn Golf & Tennis Resort in Howie-in-the-Hills, Florida, Thursday, May 6 through Saturday, May 8th.

The 54-hole, 6,165-yard tournament begins Thursday at 8:00 a.m. and runs through Saturday’s final round. Twenty-one teams are participating in each of the three regionals with the top eight teams from each advancing to the 2004 NCAA Championships to be held May 18-21st in Auburn, Alabama. Each team is comprised of five golfers with the best four scores counting towards the team’s total score each day.

The Gamecocks will be represented by Adrienne Gautreaux, Erica Battle, Kory Thompson, Jenna Pearson and Marci Robinson with three of the five USC golfers (Battle, Thompson and Pearson) participating in their first NCAA East Regional. Gautreaux was recently named as a First Team All SEC selection while Erica Battle was named as an SEC Scholar Athlete for her work in the classroom and on the course.

The SEC placed 10 teams in the NCAA Regionals with seven playing in the East Regional (Alabama, Auburn, Florida, LSU, Ole Miss, South Carolina and Tennessee).

This is the sixth consecutive NCAA Regional appearance for the Gamecocks and the 10th overall. Under head coach Kristi Coggins, the team has advanced to the Regional eight times in her nine years.

Results from each day’s competition will be posted on the South Carolina website (www.uscsports.com) after the completion of each round. Fans can follow the NCAA Regionals by watching the live hole-by-hole coverage on the Golf Stat website (www.golfstat.com).