April 29, 2008

NORMAL, Ill. - The Illinois State women's golf team is headed to Austin, Texas to compete in the 2008 NCAA Central Regional Thursday-Saturday, May 8-10. ISU is coming off a Missouri Valley Conference record ninth women's golf title and will play at the par-71, 7,412-yard University of Texas Golf Club as a No. 20 seed.

First-year head coach Darby Sligh is excited for the opportunity and believes her team has a chance to move on.

"This is going to be a great experience for us as such a young team," said Sligh. "It is an honor to have a chance like this. This program has laid a great foundation over the past few years and each of the girls is ready to compete. We are not going to be satisfied with just playing in the tournament, we want to play well and have a chance to win."

The Redbirds are led by a pair of all-conference selections in redshirt sophomore Marisa Milligan and sophomore Stacey Miller. Milligan, who was also named MVC Newcomer of the Year, leads Illinois State with a scoring average of 76.1 and has placed in the top-20 in four of her five events played this spring. Miller, a first team All-MVC Scholar-Athlete, has competed in all of ISU's 11 events this season and is second on the team with a scoring average of 77.8.

21 teams and three individuals will play in the 54-hole Central Regional. Teams competing, in order of seeding, include: UCLA, Purdue, Alabama, Denver, Kent State, Pepperdine, LSU, Texas A&M, Notre Dame, Texas, TCU, Florida State, North Carolina State, East Tennessee State, Texas Tech, Washington, Nebraska, Harvard, Texas State, Illinois State and Fairleigh Dickinson. Individuals competing include Steffi Kirchmayr of the College of Charleston, Sara Wikstrom of Arkansas-Little Rock and Araceli Felgueroso of Coastal Carolina.

"Our field is filled with some of the best golf programs in the country," Sligh noted. "Our players have done a nice job these past few weeks of staying in competition mode, while also taking care of business in the classroom. The girls realize what this means to our program so they have really been pushing each other. We are ready to play."

63 teams in all will compete in three NCAA Regionals. Along with Austin, Texas, other Regional sites include the University of Georgia Golf Course, home of the East Regional hosted by Georgia, and the Lincoln Hills Golf Club, home of the West Regional hosted by Sacramento State.

Eight teams and two individuals will advance from each regional to compete in the NCAA Finals being held Tuesday-Friday, May 20-23 at the University of New Mexico Championship Golf Course in Albuquerque, N.M.

The first round of the Central Regional is scheduled for Thursday, May 8. Tee times have yet to be announced.