Women's Golf Earns Top Spot at NCAA East Regional
4/30/2012 12:00:00 AM | Women's Golf
April 30, 2012
TUSCALOOSA, Ala. -
The University of Alabama women’s golf team was awarded the No. 1 seed at the 2012 NCAA East Regional at the Penn State University Blue Course in State College, Pa., the NCAA announced Monday evening.
The NCAA East Regional will be held on May 10-12 at the 7,228-yard, par-72 Blue Course hosted by Penn State. It is the seventh straight invitation to postseason competition for the Crimson Tide, which finished tied for eighth at last season’s NCAA Championship.
“For us, it’s a matter of going there [an NCAA Regional site] and playing as well as we can,” Potter said of he’s team’s participation in the East Regional. “I don’t know a whole lot yet about the Penn State Blue Golf Course yet, and we don’t have anyone that has played it, so the bottom line is we have to go and focus on playing as well as we possibly can.”
The top-eight finishers at the NCAA East Regional will advance to the NCAA Championships at the Legends Golf Club on May 22-25 in Franklin Tennessee and join the teams that have advanced from the other two regionals. Alabama won the Fall Preview in September at the Legends Golf Club with a 15-over-par total of 879 to finish second in the event.
Since Potter’s arrival at the Capstone prior to the 2005-06 season, the Crimson Tide has qualified for the NCAA Regionals each season and advanced to the NCAA Championships six consecutive years. The 2012 selection is the 14th NCAA appearance in school history.
For Potter, the regional berth marks the 19th consecutive appearance by a team under his direction. The Hall of Fame coach has now led a team to a regional bid in each season since the format came into existence in 1993. Joining Alabama in the NCAA East Regional is No. 2 seed Arizona State, No. 3 seed and Atlantic Coast Conference Champion Duke, No. 4 seed Texas A&M and No. 5 seed Florida.
South Carolina is the only other Southeastern Conference team to join the Crimson Tide and Florida in the NCAA East Regional in two weeks.
“We’ll have the majority of our finals out of the way this week, which is the first time we haven’t had to take finals early,” Potter added. “We’ll get out and play a few times this week and try minimize our time on the range in order to get on the course as much as possible to work on hitting and shaping shots.”
Last season Alabama captured the NCAA East Regional title to earn a berth in the NCAA Championships. The Tide shot 2-over-par 866 to win its first regional title in program history.
NCAA East Regional
The East regional will be played at the Penn State Blue Course in State College, Pennsylvania and will be hosted by Pennsylvania State University. Conference automatic qualifiers are indicated in parenthesis next to the institution.
Teams:
1. Alabama
2. Arizona St.
3. Duke (Atlantic Coast Conference)
4. Texas A&M
5. Florida
6. Arizona
7. Oklahoma St.
8. South Carolina
9. Michigan St. (Big Ten Conference)
10. Washington
11. Texas
12. Tulane
13. UCF
14. Wake Forest
15. Northwestern
16. San Diego St.
17. Kent St. (Mid-American Conference)
18. Maryland
19. Augusta St.
20. Campbell (Big South Conference)
21. Chattanooga (Southern Conference)
22. Oral Roberts (The Summit League)
23. Jacksonville St. (Ohio Valley Conference)
24. LIU Brooklyn (Northeast Conference)
Individuals:
1. Fanny Cnops, UNC-Greensboro
2. Charlotte Lorentzen, Georgia St.
3. Kelly Shon, Princeton
4. Katie Mundy, FIU
5. Michelle Piyapattra, Columbia
6. Laura Wearn, Furman
