Park and Ras-Anderica Head to NCAA Central Regionals
April 30, 2012
CORAL GABLES, Fla. – Selection Monday culminated with the University of Miami women’s golf team earning two individual spots in the NCAA Regional field. Freshmen Rika Park and Leticia Ras-Anderica will be representing the Hurricanes as individuals in the 2012 NCAA Central Regional hosted in Columbus, Ohio.
Park & Ras-Anderica will travel to play at the Ohio State University Golf Club (Scarlett Course). They will meet a field that includes team participants USC, Auburn, Georgia, Vanderbilt, Tennessee, Ohio State, Oregon, NC State, Virginia, Florida State, Purdue, Arkansas, Ole Miss, Kentucky, Texas State, South Florida, Notre Dame, UTSA, East Carolina, Michigan, UNC Wilmington, Harvard, Butler and Siena.
Along with Park and Ras-Anderica, the individual field will include Madeleine Shiels of Nebraska, Alex Buelow of Stetson, Brittany Henderson of Coastal Carolina and Gabriella Wahl of Eastern Tennessee State.
“Our goal was to qualify as a team, but to place two individuals – two freshmen – is a very encouraging sign of growth within our program,” said head coach Patti Rizzo. “To have two rookies lead the way, says a great deal about the future of UM golf. I know they will make the most of this opportunity and use the experience as a teaching point for their teammates in years to come.”
Last season, senior Maria Ronderos represented UM in NCAA Regionals. UM was hopeful that they would receive an at-large bid with national ranking of 60 (Golfstat.com), but came up just short.
Park, who hails from Japan, is averaging 75.38 strokes per round heading into Regionals. Park has four top-10 finishes this season, including a third-place showing in the Mary Fossum Invitational.
Ras-Anderica, who is a native of Spain, was the frontrunner for the Canes for most of the season with a stroke average of 75.58. Ras-Anderica has four top-10 finishes to her credit with the best performance coming at the Sir Pizza Cards Challenge where she shot a 1-over-217 thru 54 holes. Both Park and Ras-Anderica were nominated for All-ACC selection.
Play begins in the NCAA Central Regional on Thursday, May 10 and will run through Saturday, May 12.
