May 7, 2008

UC Davis golf notes in PDF Format

Live Tournament Scoring

LINCOLN HILLS, Calif. -- The UC Davis women's golf team - in just its third season as a varsity sport - continues its amazing success as a young program when it competes as one of 21 teams at the NCAA Division I West Region Championships at nearby Lincoln Hills Golf Club beginning Thursday.

The Aggies, who are in just their first year of official Division I status, earned an at-large bid to the tournament in their first year of eligibility. UC Davis enters the week after finishing among the top seven teams in nine consecutive tournaments, including a runner-up finish at its first-ever Big West Conference Championship two weeks ago.

The 54-hole tournament is being played at the par-72, 6,338-yard Lincoln Hills Golf Club, a course the Aggies are familiar with having finished in a tie for fourth at the NCAA Western Regional Preview a month ago. The course has been lengthened for this week's championship and will provide a strong challenge for many of the country's top teams. The top eight teams, and top two individuals not on an advancing team, will qualify for the national finals later this month at New Mexico.

UC Davis will tee off beginning at 1 p.m. and be grouped with UNLV and UC Irvine. Teams will play 18 holes each day.

The regional - one of three regionals being contested this week - features four teams ranked in Golfweek's most recent top 10. Southern California is currently ranked No. 1, Arizona State is No. 5, Oklahoma State is No. 7 and Arkansas is No. 9. UC Davis enters the tournament at No. 53.

"This is one of the toughest regionals of three," said head coach Kathy DeYoung. "It's a great opportunity. We get to go in with no pressure at all and you never know. If we put three good days together, there's always a chance."

UC Davis will battle the course and the other teams with a primarily freshmen lineup that includes first-year players Chelsea Stelzmiller, Alice Kim and Katie Sisler. Junior Bryana Gregory and senior Sydney Roughton round out the quintet; the same five players that helped the Aggies to second place at the conference tournament. Despite the young lineup and tough field, DeYoung is confident in her team's abilities.

"We know people aren't looking at us to go on from here too much but we've competed with some of these teams over the course of the season," she said. "We're also just not happy to be there. We're going to go in and do our best and see how it goes.

"The big thing is it's great experience," she added. "Every time you go to one of these you're more comfortable so I think it'll really help the team for next year as well."

UC Davis, which has won at least one tournament in each of its first three seasons, earned top honors at the USF/Richmond CC Invitational in November and has finished second on three other occasions. Additionally, Stelzmiller won medalist honors at the Price's Give 'Em Five Intercollegiate at New Mexico State in November and tied for first at the Big West Championships before losing on the third playoff hole to UC Irvine's Kim Lorenzana. Ironically, the pair will be in the same grouping on Thursday afternoon.

Stelzmiller went on to earn Player of the Year and Freshman of the Year honors in the Big West Conference and was named to the all-conference first team along with Kim. Gregory, Roughton and Sisler were each named to the second team.

Other teams participating in the regional include Arizona State, BYU, California, Fresno State, Michigan State, North Carolina, Ohio State, Oklahoma, Oral Roberts, Oregon, Portland State, San Jose State, Stanford and Tulsa.