Cavalier Golfers Tee It Up at Lady Tar Heel Invitational

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Charlottesville, VA After nearly a month off following a fourth-place finish at the Topy Cup in Japan, the Virginia women’s golf team returns to the links this weekend at North Carolina’s Lady Tar Heel Invitational. The 54-hole event will take place Friday through Sunday at UNC’s par-72, 6,285-yard Finley Golf Course.

The field includes Auburn, College of Charleston, Duke, East Carolina, Florida State, Georgia, Kentucky, North Carolina, NC State, Oklahoma State, South Carolina, Tennessee, Texas, Texas A&M, Tulsa, Vanderbilt, Virginia and Wake Forest. Team will tee off at 9 a.m. on Friday and Saturday and 9:15 a.m. Sunday.

The Virginia lineup will feature Kristen Simpson, Lene Krog, Calle Nielson, Carly Truitt and Whitney Neuhauser. Krog led UVa at the Topy Cup with a fourth-place finish. This will be Nielson’s first event as a collegiate.

Last season the Cavaliers finished second at the tournament behind Vanderbilt, beating eventual national champion Duke by one shot. UVa was led by the top-five finishes of Leah Wigger and Jennie Arseneault.

The Lady Tar Heel Invitational will be a homecoming for first-year Virginia coach Kim Lewellen, who competed at North Carolina from 1990-93 under her maiden name of Byham. She was a two-time All-ACC performer during her junior and senior seasons. In 1993 she earned first-team All-America honors from the National Golf Coaches Association, only the second Tar Heel golfer to achieve that honor. As a senior she won medalist honors at the NCAA East Regional Championships and helped North Carolina to its second straight eighth-place finish at the NCAA Championships. Her score of 3-under 213 at the NCAA East Regional still ranks as one of the 10 lowest tournament scores in Tar Heel history.

During her collegiate career Lewellen won a total of three tournaments, including the Lady Tar Heel Classic in 1992 and the Woodbridge Collegiate in 1993. In 2003 she was honored as a member of the Atlantic Coast Conference 50th Anniversary Women’s Golf Team. She was mentored at UNC by legendary coach Dot Gunnells.

Lewellen earned a bachelor’s degree in speech communications and psychology from North Carolina in 1993.

Live scoring will be available at www.Golfstat.com.