Sept. 6, 2009

DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. – South Carolina’s women’s golf team got strong play across the board and finished one stroke behind Florida to take second place in 36 holes of stroke-play qualifying at the NGCA Match Play Championship at LPGA International on Sunday. Sophomore Katie Burnett and freshman Amanda Strang tied for third in the stroke-play portion of the event.

Burnett fired rounds of 69 and 75 to total an even-par day of 144. Strang, the Swedish native playing in her first collegiate event, went 72-72=144 to tie her Gamecock teammate.

Not far behind was senior Corrine Carr, who tied for eighth place with rounds of 72-73=145, one stroke behind Burnett and Strang. Freshman Meredith Swanson and senior Benedicte Toumpsin turned in rounds of 154 to tie for 46th place.

As a team, the Gamecocks shot 292-294=585 to finish one stroke behind Florida and four shots clear of defending SEC champion Auburn to earn the No. 2 seed in the match play portion of the event, which gets underway Monday morning. The Gamecocks will play the third match of the championship bracket, facing No. 7-seed Virginia. The match play format is best-of-five singles matches with the winner advancing to play the winner of bitter rivals Auburn and Alabama.

Fans can follow live scoring through GolfStat.com.