Women's Golf Advances to NCAA Championships

Saturday, May 11

Baton Rouge, LA

12:00 AM

Florida Gators

NCAA East Regional

Women's Golf Advances to NCAA Championships

Saturday, May 11, 2002 | Women's Golf

The University of Florida women's golf team will advance to the NCAA Championships May 21-24 in Auburn, Wash., after firing a final-round 302 Saturday to finish fourth at the NCAA East Regional in Baton Rouge, La. Duke held onto its lead from the second round and took the team title with a three-round 859.

This is the second time in three years that the Gators have advance to the NCAA Championships.

"It's kind of been the same story all year long. We've played well at 1-5, and someone always comes through. Their games are solid," said UF assistant coach Robin Walton, who took over head coaching duties for this tournament while head coach Jill Briles-Hinton stayed home to recover from severe headaches and flu-like symptoms at the advice of her doctors. "I think we hit a little lull in April but we're coming back up from that. Everybody on the team took initiative to rebuild their games and get themselves back on track, and it really paid off. I'm very excited about where we're going to be a week and a half from now."

The Gators came into Saturday's final round at even par, but with gusty winds all round of 20 miles per hour at times, Florida finished the tournament with a 14-over-par 878. Freshman Whitney Code (Tampa, Fla.), who led the Gators in round one, finished tied for 20^th place overall with a 221 (69-74-78). Junior Jeanne Cho (Boulogne, France) equaled Code, carding a 71-75-75--221 to also tie for 20^th place.

Junior Brittany Straza (Ft. Myers, Fla.) followed, shooting a 222 (72-74-76) to finish tied for 27^th place. Freshman Andrea Vander Lende (Longwood, Fla.) finished tied for 34^th place with a 223 (80-70-73), while sophomore Amanda Dick (Clearwater, Fla.) rounded out Florida's scoring with a 225 (74-72-79) to tie for 45^th place.

"All that matters is that we're going to nationals," said Dick. "Overall, we played well - conditions were a little tougher today, and we didn't play as well as we can, but it's good enough."

Duke sophomore Leigh Ann Hardin won the individual title and set a University Club women's collegiate record for 54 holes with a six-under par 211 (71-67-72). LSU's Meredith Duncan and Meaghan Francella of Memphis will move on to the NCAA Championship as individuals.

Florida and the seven other top-eight teams at the NCAA East Regional will join the top eight teams from the Central and West Regionals, which also finish competition Saturday.

Team Scores

1. Duke 291-280-288--859

2. Auburn 287-293-292--872

3. Wake Forest 293-288-294--875

4. Florida 286-290-302--878

5. South Florida 289-296-298--883

6. South Carolina 298-293-298--889

7. Georgia 300-295-297--892

8. Vanderbilt 296-296-301--893

9. Tulane 300-295-299--894

10. Tennessee 303-306-287--896

11. Memphis 299-297-301--897