April 29, 2008
PENSACOLA, Fla. - For the fifth consecutive season, the West Florida Argonauts have represented the Gulf South Conference, and advanced to the NCAA Division II Women's Golf South Regional. The six-team, 54-hole South Regional takes place May 5-May 7 at the Mission Inn Resort & Club in Howey-in-the-Hills, FL.
Five Sunshine State Conference foes complete the Regional field, with Nova Southeastern, No. 2 Florida Southern, No. 1 Rollins, Barry and Lynn completing the field. Rollins College is the top team in the nation, followed the defending NCAA Champions No. 2 ranked Florida Southern and No. 3 ranked NSU. West Florida earned a No. 10 ranking in the latest NGCA Top 25. With four teams in the top 10 nationally, and the three top ranked teams, the south region is loaded, and will be the most competitive region.
The Argos are fresh off their third straight GSC title, in which they won in convincing fashion, winning by 26 strokes over second place Montevallo. The five Argonaut golfers that teed off in the tournament, all finished in the top 10, as UWF ran away with the 2008 GSC championship last week in Hot Springs, Arkansas.
Natalia Espinosa (So / Bogota, Colombia) had the tournaments best round with a 74 during round one, and held on for the individual title by shooting a 78 in the final round. Espinosa carded a total score of 152, to win by two strokes ahead of Henderson State's Jenna Chadwick with a 154. UWF's Meaghan Gulliksen (Fr / Daytona Beach, Fla.) and Bhavna Shetty (Fr / Mysore, India) tied for third place with a total score of 156. Tara Steakin (Fr / Wellington, Fla.) finished tied for seventh with a 36 hole total of 161, while Rachel Christ (Sr / Charlotte, NC) turned in score of 163, to finished tied for ninth place.
The Argos dominated the GSC tournament, and are playing their best golf going into the post season. Head Coach Robin Dezarn talked about the victory, "I am very proud of the team, they have worked hard to be in this position. We had a slow start today, but everyone played much better on the back nine. We were real focused today and worked hard down the stretch to seal the win. We are playing well now, so hopefully we are peaking as we go into the NCAA regionals." West Florida will need to continue their top play, as they compete against the top three ranked teams in the nation, in the stacked South Region.
The top two teams in the Regional along with the top two individuals not with one of those qualifying squads, will advance to the NCAA Championships on May 13-16 at Memorial Park in Houston, TX. At least one of the top three ranked teams in the nation will not qualify for the National championships, since the top three teams are all in the south regional.
The 2008 NCAA Division II Women's Golf Championships will be hosted by the Rice University and the Harris County-Houston Sports Authority, as part of the Division II Spring Championships Festival. The championships will consist of both team and individual competition conducted concurrently. All participants will compete throughout the entire 72 holes of competition. In the team competition, the low four scores for each team will count in each day's total score. Eight teams and eight additional individuals, for a total number of 48 participants, will qualify for the finals.
In the 2007 championship, Florida Southern College held off Rollins College to win the NCAA Division II Women's Golf Championship. Meanwhile, Florida Tech's Daniela Iacobelli captured individual national championship. Iacobelli has a chance to defend her title, as she was one of the three individuals from the South Region to earn a berth in the regional as individuals. . Brittany Beltran from Pfeiffer, and Franziska Blum from Newberry were the other two South Region Individuals. In all, 33 golfers will tee off in the South Regional beginning on May 5th.
