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Women's Golf
Irish Set For NCAA Central Regional
May 4, 2009
NOTRE DAME, Ind. - Complete Women's Golf NCAA Notes in PDF Format
The Notre Dame women's golf team will play in the NCAA Central Regional in Columbus, Ohio on May 7-9. Each of the three days will consist of one 18-hole round of play. With a top-eight finish at the Regional, the Irish would advance to the NCAA Finals for the first time in program history. Notre Dame is one of 21 teams in the Central Regional, which will be played on the Scarlet Course in Columbus, Ohio. The Ohio State University will serve as the host of the Central Regional. The NCAA Tournament field is comprised of 63 teams, plus nine individuals on non-qualifying teams, divided among the three regional sites (Gainesville, Fla., Tempe, Ariz. and Columbus, Ohio). The top eight teams and the top-two golfers from non-advancing teams at each of the three regional sites will advance to the NCAA Finals. The Finals will take place on May 19-22 at the Caves Valley Golf Course in Owings Mills, Md. and will be hosted by Georgetown. 2009 marks Notre Dame's fourth appearance in the NCAA Tournament, with the Irish making their first two NCAA appearances in 2004 and 2005. The Irish received at-large berths to the Central Regional both of those years, finishing 17th and 18th, respectively. Last season, the Irish made their third NCAA Tournament appearance after receiving an automatic bid by virtue of winning the 2008 BIG EAST Championship. They went on to finish 16th at the 2008 NCAA Central Regional, played in Austin, Texas. Notre Dame's probable lineup includes senior captain Lisa Maunu (St. Thomas, Ontario/Parkside Collegiate Institute), juniors Annie Brophy (Spokane, Wash./Gonzaga Prep) and Julie Kim (Bayside, N.Y./Bayside), sophomore So-Hyun Park (Seoul, South Korea/Bradenton Prep) and freshman Becca Huffer (Denver, Colo./Littleton HS). Following The Irish At The Central Regional The Course The NCAA Central Regional For the season, Notre Dame holds an 11-20 head-to-head record against the 20 other teams that will play in the central regional. Out of that group, the Irish have played Wake Forest (0-4), Michigan State (0-4) and Ohio State (2-2) the most. Notre Dame's best record against a team in the field is a 3-0 mark posted against 35th-ranked NC State. Central Regional Field 1. UCLA (2) 2. Oklahoma State (5) 3. Purdue (9) 4. Wake Forest (11) 5. Louisville (15) 6. Kent State (17) 7. Michigan State (19) 8. Ohio State (24) 9. Stanford (26) 10. New Mexico (28) 11. Georgia State (33) 12. Notre Dame (32) 13. NC State (35) 14. Washington (40) 15. Kentucky (42) 16. Chattanooga (48) 17. Michigan (53) 18. Murray State (129) 19. Illinois State (85) 20. Harvard (69) 21. Fairleigh Dickinson (/) Irish At The NCAAs In 2008, Notre Dame returned to the NCAAs in Susan Holt's second season as head coach. She led the squad down to Austin, Texas where they finsihed 16th. Ending in a tie for 30th, Lisa Maunu was the best Irish finisher. NCAA Marks The Last Time Out Lisa Maunu captured the individual title as she finished at minus-one for the tournament after carding a final round minus-two 70. So-Hyun Park (70-80-74) and Annie Brophy (77-73-74) also cracked the top-10 as they tied for ninth place with a plus-eight (224) mark. Other Irish highlights from the event included Park's hole in one at the par-3 fourth in the first round. Maunu The Medalist Maunu, who was celebrating her 22nd birtday on the final day of play, made an impressive charge through the back nine to claim the title with a third round minus-two 70. With eight holes left to play in round three, she was three-shots over par. But the senior captain rallied to birdie the 11th, 13th, 14th, 15th, and 17th holes to secure the title. With the win, Maunu became the program's second consecutive BIG EAST medalist and the fourth overall. Notre Dame's first medalist, Katie Brophy, was a co-medlaist as a freshman at the 2003 tournament. Karen Lotta did the same at the 2005 event during her senior campaign. Last year Annie Brophy, the younger sister of Katie, captured the title as a sophomore, becoming Notre Dame's first outright BIG EAST Champion. 2009 BIG EAST Honors In previous seasons, the BIG EAST honored an All-Tournament team based on top-10 finishes at the conference championship tournament, but the format was switched to an All-BIG EAST team for the 2009 season. The league's coaches voted for the Player of the Year, the Freshman of the Year and the Coach of the year, as well as for the All-BIG EAST Team. When the votes were tallied, the Irish comprised four of the 11-player all-conference team. All told, the Irish have combined for 19 all-BIG EAST honors since the 2003 season. Noriko Nakazaki, a 2007 graduate, is the program record holder with four all-conference accolades. UND's All-BIG EAST Performers Noriko Nakazaki (2004, 2005, 2006, 2007) Annie Brophy (2007, 2008, 2009) Katie Brophy (2003, 2004, 2005) Karen Lotta (2003, 2004, 2005) Lisa Maunu (2007, 2008, 2009) So-Hyun Park (2008, 2009) Shannon Byrne (2003) Suzie Hayes (2003) Becca Huffer (2009) Julie Kim (2007) Kristin Wetzel (2008)
The Irish have played in Ohio on several occasions. Most recently, the Irish played the Elks Run Golf Club in Batavia, Ohio. They did so on April 20-22, 2008, capturing the 2008 BIG EAST title. Notre Dame has also played tournaments at the Gray and Scarlet Courses in Columbus, Ohio. All-time, six Notre Dame players have hailed from the Buckeye State including Roberta Bryer, Panora Fecko, Marty Anne Hall, Jennifer Lynch, Denise Paulin and most recently Lauren Gebauer, who played for the Irish from 2003-06. Bryer, a 1991 Notre Dame graduate, served as a team captain for the 1989-90 and 1990-91 seasons. Other Irish connections to the Buckeye state include head coach Susan Holt, who is a 1988 graduate of the Ohio State University, where she played on the women's golf team that won Big Ten Championships and made NCAA tournamnet appearances in 1985 and 1988. Before attending Ohio State, Holt graduated from Fairmont High School in Kettering, Ohio. Next Up NCAA Experience
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