Women's Golf Set For Day One of NCAA Championship on Tuesday
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St. Louis, Mo., April 30, 2012 – The Washington University in St. Louis women's golf team will make its third-consecutive appearance in the NCAA Division III Championship, as announced by the NCAA Committee. The Bears earned an at-large bid to the NCAA championship, which will be played on Tuesday-Friday, May 8-11, at Zollner Golf Course in Angola, Ind.
Washington University, in its fourth season as a varsity sport and ranked No. 2 in the Golf World/National Golf Coaches Association (NGCA) women's coaches' poll, placed in the top-five in nine of 10 tournaments they competed in. The Bears won a Division III best six tournaments in 2011-12, including four in the fall season.
The fourth season of the program has brought overwhelming success with the Bears posting a school-record 310.75 scoring average, a mark that ranks second in NCAA Division III. Washington U. finished the regular season ranked No. 4 in the Division III head-to-head rankings.
Freshman Olivia Lugar, junior Hannah Buck and sophomore Andrea Hibbert lead a group of five golfers who will compete in the NCAA Championship. The trio is ranked in the top-15 in NCAA Division III in scoring, with Lugar and Buck both ranked in the top five.
Lugar has fired an 80 or lower in 19 of 20 rounds this season, and ranks first in Division III with a 75.15 stroke average. She won three tournaments in her rookie campaign, and had seven top-five finishes.
Buck has carded 17 rounds at 80 or lower, and ranks third in DIII with a 76.85 average. She won a pair of tournaments as a junior to increase her career total to eight, and fired a school-record round of 69 on Sept. 17 at the IWU Fall Classic.
Hibbert ranks 11th in DIII with a 79.15 average, and has fired 17 rounds at 85 or lower. She is coming off her best performance of the year, a second-place finish at the UIS Shootout on April 21-22. Sophomore Allyson Chee (82.15) and senior Katie Homa (87.64) round out the starting lineup for Washington University.
Last season, Washington U. tied for eighth place out of 19 teams at the NCAA Championship. In 2010, the Bears placed 19th in their first-ever appearance in the postseason.
The championship consists of both team and individual competition conducted concurrently. The tournament will be contested across 72 holes of play during four days of competition. In the team competition, the low four scores from each team for each day will count in the team’s total score.
In 2011, Methodist University won its 14th consecutive and 24th overall Division III Women’s Golf Championship with a combined score of 966 at the Mission Inn Resort in Howey-in-the-Hills, Fla. The Monarchs have won the championship in 24 of the tournament’s 26 years. Runner-up honors went to Gustavus Adolphus College (978), while Illinois Wesleyan University finished third with a score of 991.
Paige Caldwell of Methodist earned medalist honors by edging Centre College’s Emily Bachert by three shots in 2011.