Lady Hornets’ linksters draw Shoal Creek for NCAA Tourney
MONTGOMERY, Ala. (bamastatesports.com) – The four-time defending SWAC Champion Alabama State women’s golf team will take the short trip up Interstate 65 for its 2016 NCAA Tournament appearance.
The Lady Hornets will compete at Shoal Creek Golf Course, just outside of Birmingham, for this year’s national tournament appearance May 5-7 at Shoal Creek Golf Club.
“The Shoal Creek course brings prestige to the regional,” Alabama State head golf coach Dr. Gary Grandison said. “Our region has several programs that I’m familiar with, based from either competing against them or recruiting against them.”
Alabama State is one of 28 automatic qualifiers in the NCAA tournament’s field of 72, with four regions of 18 teams. In addition to the host Alabama, the Lady Hornets will be joined in the regional by Northwestern, Oklahoma State, California, Iowa State, Florida State, Tennessee, Missouri, Purdue, Notre Dame, Vanderbilt, Clemson, Michigan, Middle Tennessee State, New Mexico, Eastern Kentucky and Oakland.
Shoal Creek is one of four regional sites in this year’s tournament, joining Baton Rouge, La. (LSU), Stanford, Ca. (Stanford), and Bryan, Texas (Texas A&M). The top six teams in each regional will advance to the national championship event in Eugene, Ore.
The Lady Hornets won their fourth straight SWAC championship and fifth in last six seasons last week at Links on the Bayou Golf Course in Alexandria, La. Chanelle Avaricio won her second straight low medalist award, as she shot one-under par 143 in the 36-hole championship, the only player to shoot under par in the field.
“We are consistently improving,” Dr. Grandison said of his team, which again put all five players on the All-SWAC team. “We’ve progressed to the point where I believe we can shoot under par as a team.”
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