Ria Scott

The 2025-2026 season marks the eighth year Ria Scott leads the Virginia program. 

During her tenure at UVA, she has made the Cavaliers regulars at NCAA Championships while achieving outstanding academic accomplishments and developing players to ACC Championships and All-America standing.

In the 2024-2025 season, the Cavaliers had an incredible postseason run and qualified for Match Play at the NCAA Championships. The Hoos completed the season in a tie for 5th nationally, after falling to No. 1 Stanford in the NCAA Championship Quarterfinals.  The squad proudly advanced to the NCAA Championship after finishing 3rd at UVA’s first-ever hosted NCAA Golf Regional at Birdwood.  Amanda Sambach and Megan Propeck led the Hoos, and earned All-America honors for their stellar seasons. The squad captured the team title at the Pan Pacific UGSL event in Japan, and had 4 other runner-up finishes in stroke play.  Following a season where the team had 7 top-3 finishes and was ranked Top-15 for the entirety of the year, Scott was named the 2025 Golf Pride East Region Coach of the Year, and one of only 4 finalists for National Coach of the Year. As a team, the Cavaliers finished the season ranked No. 11 nationally. 

During the 2023-24 season, the Cavaliers’ accomplishments included a third-place finish at the NCAA Cle Elum Regional to advance to the NCAA Championships for the third consecutive season. Scott was named to the Women’s Golf Coaches Association’s watch list for the 2023-24 Division I Jackie Steinmann WGCA National Coach of the Year Presented by Golf Pride. Scott led the Cavaliers to five top-three finishes and saw All-American Amanda Sambach rank in the top-10 of the national individual rankings all season. In addition to finishing third at the NCAA Regional, the Cavaliers reached the match play portion of the ACC Championships, losing in the semifinals.

The 2022-23 season marked the team’s 17th berth into NCAA play in 20 seasons of the program’s history. That squad recorded the most under par team rounds in school history (11) and finished the season with the best stroke average in school history (291.10). The team was led by All-American Amanda Sambach who won the ACC Championship, the ANNIKA Intercollegiate and the NCAA Westfield Regional.  Sambach also helped Team USA win the 2023 Arnold Palmer Cup.

In the 2021-22 season, the Cavaliers posted a 15th-place finish at the NCAA Championships where All-American graduate student Beth Lillie finished ninth for the second consecutive season. As a team, the Cavaliers finished the season ranked No. 9 nationally on Golfstat.

Scott’s teams have made Match Play in every year of its existence in the ACC Championship. 

Under her leadership, players have been recognized as WGCA All-Americans (six), Golfweek All-Americans (four), and earned eight All-ACC honors. The team has won five tournament team titles and have set the school record for single-season team scoring average two times (2021, 2023).

Scott’s teams have also been honored for outstanding academic standing, with 27 student-athletes earning WGCA All-America Scholar honors in the past seven seasons, bringing the total to 49 in the 22 years of the program.  

Coach Scott has been recognized by the Virginia Sports Information Directors as the state’s Women’s Golf Coach of the Year in 2019, 2022 and 2023.

Scott, a native of the Philippines, teamed with the University of Washington’s Alan Murray to lead the International squad to a victory at the 2020 Palmer Cup. She also served as an assistant coach for the International team at the 2019 Arnold Palmer Cup, helping that squad to a victory against its USA counterparts.

During her time at the University of Oregon, Scott guided the Ducks to NCAA postseason play in all nine of her seasons in Eugene. Prior to her arrival, Oregon hadn’t advanced to the NCAA Finals in 10 straight years. Under Scott’s guidance, the Ducks made a habit of being ranked in the top 25. Oregon tied for fifth place at the 2016 NCAA Championships, and marked the best postseason performance in the program’s history at that time. Scott’s teams produced seven of the top eight season scoring averages in school history, and each player in Oregon’s top-10 season scoring average category was coached by her. She coached Caroline Inglis, now on the LPGA Tour, to Oregon’s first individual Pac-12 Championship in 2015.

Scott joined the Oregon staff in 2009 after a two-year stint as the head coach at the University of San Francisco.  During her second season with the Dons, Scott was named West Coast Conference Coach of the Year as her team captured two tournament wins and spent most of the spring ranked in Golfstat’s top-30.

Before becoming a coach, Scott played professionally around the world. Her professional highlights include appearances in the 2006 Women’s World Cup in South Africa and the 2004 US Women’s Open. Scott was the first woman to play in an Asian PGA event, competing in the 2004 DHL Philippine Open.

As a student-athlete at the University of California, she led the Bears to appearances at the 2001, 2002, and 2003 NCAA Championships and was a 2003 All-Pac-10 and 2002 All-Region honoree. As a senior co-captain in her final season, she helped the Bears win a school-record seven tournaments, capture Pac-10 and NCAA Regional titles, and rank as high as 2nd nationally. The two-time Pac-10 All-Academic honorable mention selection also won the 2003 Anna Espenschade Award, presented to the top graduating female student-athlete at Cal.

As a prep, the Philippines native started the golf program at James Logan High School in Union City, Calif., where she captained the boys’ team her final three years. She won the 1997 California Junior Girls Championship at Monterey Peninsula Country Club.

Among various national and international events, she qualified for six USGA Championships – one US Women’s Open, three US Women’s Amateurs, and two US Girls Juniors.  Scott advanced to the Round of 16 at the 2001 British Women’s Amateur. In addition, she competed for the Philippine National Team (1997-2002) and earned a gold medal in the 1997 Southeast Asian Games and a pair of bronze medals in the 1998 and 2002 Asian Games.  Scott also played in two World Amateur Team Championships in 1998 (Chile) and 2000 (Germany) for the Philippine National Team.

Scott was on the Board of Directors for the Women’s Golf Coaches Association from 2012-2016 and most recently as the Associate Vice President from 2014-2016. She is a SAM Level 3 certified putting instructor.

She and her husband, Drew, have two sons, Walker and Grant.