Canes Set to Travel to ACC Championship
April 12, 2012
CORAL GABLES, Fla. — The University of Miami women’s golf team has wrapped up the regular season and are preparing for the ACC Championship that takes place Friday, April 13-15, in Greensboro, N.C. For the fourth consecutive year the tournament is being held at Sedgefield Country Club, a 6,163-yard par-71 course just minutes away from the Conference offices.
The Canes will be paired in the opening round of the Championships with North Carolina State and Boston College at 8:30 on Friday morning.
The underclassmen-laden Miami Hurricanes will be led by freshman Rika Park who is averaging a team low 75.38 strokes per round. Park most recently carded an eighth-place finish at the Ole Miss Rebel Intercollegiate. Freshman Leticia Ras-Anderica, who’s been in the ACC top-20 for the majority of the spring season will be heading into her first conference tourney.
“We have been playing and competing a lot the past few weeks,” said Ras-Anderica. “Our team is well prepared for this event and we have been working just as hard as any other team in the ACC. I believe it will come down to focus and playing the game we all know.”
This year’s spring campaign included two top-3 finishes, a third-place finish at the Sir Pizza Cards Challenge, and a second-place finish at Miami’s own Hurricane Invitational, where the Canes went head-to-head against 18th ranked Ohio State University in a sudden-death playoff.
The Hurricanes will be up against a very competitive ACC field comprised of four top-25 teams, including two ranked in the top-10. No. 8 Duke University has won two tournaments, while No. 6 North Carolina has tallied three top-three finishes in the 2011-12 season.
Duke University has historically dominated the tournament winning an unprecedented 16 titles, including a 12-year win streak from 1996-2008. Wake Forest comes in next with five titles. North Carolina – the 2011 ACC champions – enters the tournament holding two ACC titles.
Since joining the Atlantic Coast Conference in 2004, Miami’s best outcome at the ACC Championship came in 2005, where they placed fifth. The team was led by All-ACC members Josie Shinn and 2005 Sports Society Athlete of the Year Tina Miller.
2005 was also the last time Miami made it into the NCAA tournament. The 2012 version are ranked 60th by Golfstat and still hold a shot at an NCAA at-large bid. Last year New Mexico State made it into the tourney while being ranked ranked 68th, as did No. 62 Illinois.
The championship is free and open to the public. You can follow the action on golfstat.com, on twitter at @hurricanesgolf and HurricaneSports.com.
ACC Tournament Schedule:
First Round Pairings:
Group one: Boston College, Miami, NC State
Tee Times: 8:30a.m./8:40a.m./8:50a.m./9:00a.m./9:10a.m.
Group two: Maryland, Florida State, Wake Forest
Tee times: 9:20a.m./9:30a.m./9:40a.m./9:50a.m./10:00a.m.
Group three: Virginia, Duke, North Carolina
Tee times: 10:10a.m./10:20a.m./10:30a.m./10:40a.m./10:50a.m.
