Golf Readies for Postseason in Greensboro
GREENSBORO, N.C. – With the regular season complete, the No. 54-ranked University of Miami women’s golf team will make its ninth ACC Women’s Golf Championship appearance April 19-21 at Sedgefield Country Club. The 6,163-yard, par-71 course will host 18 holes each day.
Miami, who enters the ACC Championship as the No. 7 seed, is paired with Maryland and Boston College for Friday’s opening round, with action beginning at 8:30 a.m. ET. Duke is the defending ACC Champion and the Blue Devils head into the tournament ranked No. 2 in the nation.
The Hurricanes return three starters from last year’s ACC Championship squad. A season ago, the Canes finished eighth for the seventh consecutive time despite having three Canes place among the top 30. Miami hasn’t finished better than fifth at the Championship since its inaugural ACC season in 2005.
“For us to break the streak (of consecutive eighth-place finishes), we need to play well,” third-year head coach Patti Rizzo said. “There’s quite a few teams in the Top 25 in our conference, so it won’t be easy.
“Our goal this year has always been to make the NCAA Regionals. With us currently being ranked No. 54, I think with a Top 5 or Top 6 finish this weekend, we could secure our program’s first trip there, as a team, since 2005.”
The 2012-13 edition of the Hurricanes enter the postseason after enjoying one of their best seasons since joining the ACC, posting second-lowest 54-hole score, the third-best sub-300 rounds in a single season (10) and fourth-best low-round in program history (289).
For the second consecutive tournament, head coach Patti Rizzo’s lineup will include sophomore Leticia Ras-Anderica, sophomore Rika Park, freshman Christina Ocampo, junior Carina Cuculiza and freshman Laura Hendee. Ras-Anderica leads the Canes with a 74.41 stroke average through 10 tournaments, while recording a team-best five top-25 finishes. Ras-Anderica and Park have combined for four of the Canes’ six individual top-10 finishes this season.
“We’ll see how we play out,” Rizzo said. “This course is a tough one and having looked at this weekend’s forecast for North Carolina, it looks like it’ll be rainy and windy, so expect some high scores across the board.
“As far as we go, we’ve been playing well in practice,” Rizzo said. “Laura [Hendee] met with a new swing coach the past few weeks and we can tell there’s been a lot of improvement. Carina [Cuculiza] hasn’t fared well at this course, but this season she’s been putting great, and we can count on her to score around 74-79 on a consistent basis.”
Miami posted five top-five finishes in 10 tournaments this season, including four consecutive top-five finishes to open the spring season. The Canes concluded their regular season April 2 with a ninth-place finish at the SDSU Farms Invitational in California.
Live scoring will be provided throughout the event at http://theacc.co/WGolfliveresults. Live streaming coverage of the ACC Championship will also be provided for the second and third rounds beginning at 1 p.m. ET on Saturday and 12:30 p.m. ET on Sunday here: http://theacc.co/WGolfWatchLive.
For the latest information, follow the Miami Hurricanes women’s golf team on Twitter, @HurricanesGolf.
