Lady'Back golf selected to NCAA Central Region Championship

Jump to selections FAYETTEVILLE — The 26th-ranked University of Arkansas women’s golf team is headed to Michigan for the NCAA Central Regional Championship. Arkansas makes its fifth consecutive regional appearance and sixth overall, and travel to Ann Arbor for the regional May 10-12. LSU is hosting the East Regional while BYU hosts the West. Regional selections are based on national rankings with the top 15 teams in the nation divided equally among the three sites. The remainder of the selections compete in their own region. "It looks like the East is going to be the toughest region to get out of," said Arkansas head coach Kelley Hester. "The West is a bit easier and the Central is right in the middle. I think it’s a good place to be." Arkansas enters the regional as the ninth seed in the Central. This year’s Central Region field, in order of selection, includes third-ranked Georgia, No. 4 Vanderbilt, No. 8 Southern California, No. 10 Tennessee, No. 16 Arizona, No. 22 Michigan State, No. 23 TCU, No. 35 Baylor, No. 26 Arkansas and No. 29 Kent State in the top 10 spots. Also competing at Michigan is No. 23 Ohio State, No. 34 Northwestern, No. 42 Michigan, No. 47 Missouri, No. 40 ASMU, No. 48 Maryland, No. 49 Indiana, No. 51 North Carolina-Wilmington, No. 87 Oral Roberts, No. 100 Southern Illinois and No. 198 St. Francis. This year’s even takes place at the University of Michigan Golf Course, an unfamiliar site for the Lady Razorbacks. "Shauna (Estes, Arkansas assistant coach) has played the course," said Hester. "All I know at this point is what I’ve read on the website. It’s a traditional, older-type golf course. The rough shouldn’t bee too tall since it’s early in their season." The Lady Razorbacks travel a young squad to the Regional Championship headlined by junior Stacy Lewis. The two-time all-American and three-time Southeastern Conference first-team selection continues to battle a back injury that saw The Woodlands, Texas, native pull out of the league championship last week. Lewis is the only traveling Lady”Back with regional experience and has played in both the 2005 and 2006 championships. Also scheduled to travel is sophomore Lucy Nunn and freshmen Kristin Ingram, Corinna Rees and Alexandrea Schulte. Nunn accompanied the team last year as an alternate but did not play. "Sometimes, an older team puts more pressure on themselves," said Hester. "Since we are in a rebuilding year, there really isn’t any pressure on us. We’re going in there with a young team and they don’t know what to expect and sometimes that’s a good thing." The top eight teams from each of the three regionals advance to the 2007 NCAA Championship May 22-25, at LPGA International in Daytona Beach, Fla. "We’ve had a bit of an up-and-down season," said Hester. "We’ve played an extremely difficult schedule and had a really good stretch here in the spring. Hopefully, we’re peaking at the right time. Because we do have such a young team, every opportunity we have to play is a chance to gain experience and get better." For more information about Arkansas golf, please log on to LADYBACKS.COM.