Cavaliers Begin Play at NCAA Regional Thursday
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May 8, 2013
| NCAA East Regional Championship |
Dates May 9-11 Location Auburn, Ala. | Auburn University Club
Live Stats Golfstat Live Scoring More Information Virginia Stats | Tee Times
Charlottesville, Va. – The 13th-ranked Virginia women’s golf team opens play at the NCAA East Regional on Thursday, May 9. The three-day, 54-hole championship is taking place at the Auburn University Golf Course. It is the ninth straight year Virginia is competing in a NCAA Regional.
The top eight schools from each of three 24-team regional sites will advance to the NCAA Championships along with the top two individuals not advancing from a team from each site. The NCAA Championships are scheduled for May 21-24 at the University of Georgia Golf Course in Athens, Ga.
The East Regional features seven teams currently ranked in the Golfstat top-25 poll. Top-seeded Alabama is ranked No. 2, second seed Arkansas is ranked No. 5, fourth seed North Carolina is ranked No. 11, sixth seed Oklahoma State is No. 17, seventh seed Tulane is No. 20 and eighth seed Texas is No. 23 in the poll. Virginia is ranked No. 13 in the Golfstat standings.
Virginia is one of seven ACC teams to receive an invitation to this year’s national championship. North Carolina is the No. 4 seed in the East while Duke is the No. 1 seed in the Central. NC State is the No. 8 seed in the Central Regional and Wake Forest is the No. 14 seed at that site. Florida State is the No. 17 seed in the West and Miami is the No. 18 seed in that regional.
Virginia’s lineup for the East Regional will include seniors Nicole Agnello and Brittany Altomare, juniors Portland Rosen and Elizabeth Brightwell and sophomore Briana Mao. Altomare, Rosen, Brightwell and Mao were all in the UVa lineup for last year’s Central Regional and the NCAA Championships. The five players combined have nine regional appearances.
Altomare, the 2013 ACC Individual Champion, leads the team with a 72.30 stroke average. She has three top-five finishes this season, including the individual crown at the ACC Championships which earned her all-conference honors for the fourth consecutive season. Altomare is ranked No. 13 in the latest Golfstat rankings. Also picking up All-ACC honors is sophomore Briana Mao. She is second on the team with a 74.29 stroke average. Rosen sports a 75.00 stroke average while Brightwell’s is 75.70 and Agnello’s is 77.67.
UVa’s top regional finish was a third-place showing in 2011. Last year the Cavaliers shot 905 to place fifth behind USC (874), Vanderbilt (899), Purdue (902) and Tennessee (904) at the Central Regional in Columbus, Ohio. Brittany Altomare led UVa by tying for fourth place at 2-over 218. In 2010, at the NCAA West Regional at Stanford, Calle Nielson took medalist honors by shooting 1-over 214. She is the only Cavalier to win a NCAA regional. Leah Wigger was the runner up at the 2005 East Regional held at the University of Florida Golf Course.
Live scoring of the NCAA East Regional will be provided by Golfstat.com.
NCAA East Regional Field
1. Alabama, 2. Arkansas, 3. UCLA, 4. North Carolina, 5. Virginia, 6. Oklahoma State, 7. Tulane, 8. Texas, 9. Notre Dame, 10. Northwestern, 11. Tennessee, 12. Kentucky, 13. Texas State, 14. Auburn, 15. Central Florida, 16. Penn State, 17. East Carolina, 18. Florida International, 19. Mississippi, 20. East Tennessee State, 21. Tennessee-Chattanooga, 22. James Madison, 23. Eastern Kentucky, 24. Alabama State