UVa Women's Golfers Head to Darius Rucker Intercollegiate

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March 6, 2014

Charlottesville, Va. – The Virginia women’s golf team returns to play this weekend with it competes in the third annual Darius Rucker Intercollegiate that starts Friday, March 7, and runs through Sunday, March 9. The 17-team field will compete at the Long Cove Club in Hilton Head, S.C.

The tournament field consists of 11 teams currently ranked in the Golf World/WGCA Division I College Coaches’ Poll, including six of the top-10. New to the tournament this year are No. 3 Duke, No. 8 Oklahoma, No. 9 Stanford and Kentucky. A total of nine SEC teams will participate in this year’s tournament, hosted by South Carolina, as No. 6 Alabama, No. 7 Arkansas, No. 24 Auburn, Georgia, No. 25 LSU, Tennessee and No. 14 Vanderbilt join the Gamecocks and Kentucky. No. 4 Arizona State, Furman, North Carolina and Wake Forest round out the field.

“This might be the strongest field we will see until the NCAAs,” said Virginia coach Kim Lewellen. “We had a solid start to the spring at the Florida State Match-Up Tournament, but I felt we had room to improve. We’re really looking forward to this opportunity to see where we stack up against some very quality teams at this point in the season.

Virginia’s lineup will include Elizabeth Brightwell, Lauren Diaz-Yi, Briana Mao, Portland Rosen and Lauren Coughlin. Brightwell leads the team with a 74.64 stroke average. Diaz-Yi had the team’s best outing at the FSU Match-Up event, placing seventh at 3-over 219.

First round play begins Friday at 8 a.m. Virginia gets underway at 8:45 a.m. from the No. 10 tee. The Cavaliers will be paired with North Carolina and Stanford during the opening round of play. Live scoring will be available online at Golfstat.com.

Virginia finished fifth at the inaugural Rucker Intercollegiate in 2012 and was seventh last season. Alabama has won the team title during both seasons the tournament has been contested.