April 25, 2005
Normal, Ill. -
The Illinois State women's golf team will travel to Las Cruces, N.M. on May 5-7 to play at New Mexico State University Golf Course for the 2005 NCAA West Regional Golf Tournament, hosted by New Mexico State. Of the 21 teams and three individuals playing, eight teams and the top two individuals from the non-qualifying teams advance to the NCAA Finals with the Central and East Regional qualifiers in Sunriver, Oregon on May 17-20.
After a 18-stroke victory at the State Farm Missouri Valley Conference Championship the Redbirds earned at chance to play in the NCAA Regional tournament as a conference automatic qualifier. This is the Redbirds second consecutive year winning the Valley tournament and their second appearance at the NCAA Regional tournament. At the 2004 NCAA tournament the Redbirds hosted the Central Regional, and missed playing in the finals by just three stokes finishing in a tie for ninth place. However, Samantha Richdale qualified as one of the nine individuals nationally and finished 57th out of 126th golfers in the finals.
The NCAA Committee seeded 15 teams nationally and sent five to each of the three regionals. Among the 21 teams competing in the West Regional 16 are ranked in the top 50 nationally. Some of those teams include the 2004 NCAA champion UCLA, nationally ranked Georgia (#2), Oklahoma State (#8), Tennessee (#11), Southern California (#16), Arizona (#18), Stanford (#19), California (#23) and Washington State (#25).
Head Coach Ray Kralis is both excited and pleased that the Redbirds are headed to the West Regional. However, he feels that each regional is equally competitive and knows the `Birds will have to play three quality rounds to make it to the finals.
"We are ready to go out and play no matter what, so it made no difference which regional we were sent to. However, the more I look at the teams in the West Regional I like it more and more. By us going to the West we will be able to focus on playing some great golf," Kralis said. "Most of the teams we have not played before so there is not a lot of expectations going in, and we have nothing to loose. Overall I am very excited and looking forward to the opportunity to compete in this tournament."
2005 NCAA West Regional Participants at New Mexico State University Golf course, Las Cruces, N.M.
Teams
UCLA (#3)
Georgia (#2)
Oklahoma State (#8)
Tennessee (#11)
Southern California (#16)
Arizona (#18)
California (#23)
Washington State (#25)
Stanford (#19)
UNLV
Oregon
San Francisco
UC Irvine
Brigham Young
Colorado State
Portland State
Northwestern
Oral Roberts
Illinois State
Georgia State
Denver
Individuals
Kay Hoey, Long Beach State
Laura Luethke, Fresno State
Renee Skidmore, Idaho
