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April 25, 2005

CHARLOTTESVILLE, Va. – In just its second season of existence, the University of Virginia women’s golf team has earned a berth into the 2005 NCAA Women’s Golf Championship. The No. 8 seed Cavaliers are one of 21 teams to be invited to the East Regional on May 5-7 in Gainesville, Fla.

A total of 63 teams made the NCAA field with 21 teams participating in one of three regionals. The other two NCAA regional sites are Lubbock, Texas (central), and Las Cruces, N.M. (west). The national championship is slated for May 17-20 at the Sunriver Resort in Sunriver, Ore.

“We’re very excited to have the opportunity to go to regionals,” UVa head coach Jan Mann said. “Not to look too far ahead, but we feel we have the opportunity to go to the finals. The efforts of the team over the last two years made this possible. This has truly been a team effort. We’re excited and ready to go play.”

Under the guidance of Mann and assistant coach Danielle Roudebush, Virginia has posted six Top 10 finishes this season, highlighted by a tie for third at the ACC Championship on April 17. Paced by four sophomores and a freshman in the starting line-up, UVa is ranked No. 29 nationally by GolfWeek magazine. Sophomore Leah Wigger (Louisville, Ky.) leads the Cavaliers with a 74.93 stroke average.

HOW IT ALL BEGANOn August 22, 2001, Athletic Director Craig Littlepage announced that women’s golf would become the 25th intercollegiate sport at UVa and that the team would begin competing during the 2003-04 academic year. Thanks to the generosity and vision of the late William C. Eacho, Jr., his gift of $1.4 million helped create an endowment for funding women’s golf scholarships. Eacho (pronounced Eeko) is a 1945 graduate of UVa. With the addition of women’s golf, Virginia now has 13 intercollegiate sports for women and 12 for men, including men’s golf.

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