April 28, 2008

FRESNO, Calif. - FRESNO, Calif. - The NCAA Division I Women's Golf Committee has announced the teams and individuals selected to participate in the 2008 NCAA Division I Women's Golf Championship Regionals.

The Fresno State women's golf team has been selected to play at the Western Regional May 8-10 hosted at the Lincoln Hills Golf Club, in Lincoln, Calif. The tournament will be hosted by Sacramento State University. The Bulldogs earned the automatic bid to the NCAA regionals by winning last week's Western Athletic Conference Championships in Fresno, Calif. This will mark the Bulldogs first appearance to the NCAA Regionals for the four-year program.

"We are thrilled that they sent us to the Western Regional location," said head coach Angie Cates. "We played good there at the preview finishing third in a field of 19 teams but know that we will need to step it up a bit. We will use the same strategy that we had for the WAC Championships. The golf course is our competition and we can't focus on the other schools. Control the things that we can control."

Fresno State will compete in the 21-team field to earn a chance to advance to the NCAA Championships in New Mexico May 20-23. Fresno State has spent time on the par 72 Lincoln Hills Golf Club with a third place finish at the NCAA Western Regional Preview April1. The Bulldogs shot 305-293-306 - 904 and were led with two top-20 finishes from Hali Coppin and Laura Luethke.

"The team is riding a wave of confidence right now," Cates said. "They are peaking at the right time and we know that anything is possible." Three regional tournaments will be conducted May 8-10 to determine the championships field. Regional tournaments are considered preliminary rounds of NCAA championships competition, and all national championships policies will apply.

A total of 324 participants have been selected for regional competition. Of these players, 126 will advance to the championships finals. Eight teams and two individuals will advance from each regional.

The championships finals will be held May 20-23 at the University of New Mexico Championship Golf Course, Albuquerque, New Mexico, hosted by the University of New Mexico.

West Regional
Conference automatic qualifiers are indicated in parenthesis next to the institution.
Teams:
1. Southern California (Pacific-10 Conference)
2. Arizona State
3. Arkansas
4. Arizona
5. Oklahoma State (Big 12 Conference)
6. California
7. Michigan State
8. Stanford
9. BYU
10. Tulsa (Conference USA)
11. North Carolina
12. Ohio State
13. San Jose State
14. Oklahoma
15. Oregon
16. UNLV
17. UC Davis
18. UC Irvine (Big West Conference)
19. Fresno State (Western Athletic Conference)
20. Oral Roberts (The Summit League)
21. Portland State (Big Sky Conference)

Individuals:
1. Mallory Blackwelder, Kentucky
2. Danielle Cvitanov, San Francisco
3. Emily Powers, Kansas