Saturday, September 17, 2005

SIMPSONVILLE, Ky. (Sept. 17, 2005) - The ETSU women's golf team will open their 2005-06 season Monday with first and second round play in the Napa River Grill Cardinal Cup hosted by the University of Louisville at the Cardinal Club.

Optimism surrounds the team this season, as the Lady Bucs are coming off a 2004-05 campaign that once again set new standards for the program. Under the direction of head coach Stefanie Reynolds, the team captured a pair of tournament championships, while also garnering several Southern Conference individual honors a year ago.

            While the team enjoyed six Top 5 finishes in nine events during the season, the highlights of the year were victories in the JSU Lady Gamecock Classic during the fall, and the team's second-straight victory in the Coca-Cola Terrier Intercollegiate during the spring. In all, the Lady Bucs have won three tournaments in the last two seasons. For her efforts last year, Reynolds received conference coach of the year honors - the first ETSU women's golf coach to ever earn that award.

            Individually, senior Ashley Barton (Seffner, Fla.) continued to build a reputation as one of the best female golfers to ever play at ETSU. Her season stroke average of 76.08 set a new record for juniors, while her 71 at the UNCW Lady Seahawk Invitational matched the school record for single-round score. As a cap to her season, Barton ended the year as a first-team all-conference selection, while also picking up golfer of the week honors once during the campaign.

            A major reason for the Lady Bucs' success in 2004-05 was the freshman trio of Maria Ringdahl (Oland, Sweden), Natalia Giraldo (Cali, Colombia) and Cindy Phillips (Johnson City, Tenn.). Both Ringdahl and Giraldo competed in all nine of the team's tournaments, with Ringdahl finishing second on the team with a 76.87 stroke average, while Giraldo finished third at 78.39. In fact, on way to being named to the all-conference first team, Ringdahl set or matched ETSU records for freshman scoring average (76.87), best second round score (71), best third round score (74), best two-round score (144) and best three-round score (218).

 Along with this core group from last year, senior Laura Diaz (Aguadilla, P.R.) has been a surprise so far this fall, playing extremely well and earning a spot on the Lady Bucs' top five for the Napa River Grill Cardinal Cup. In addition, true freshman Lucy Gould (Bargoed, Wales), a Welsh girls champion in both 2002 and 2003, will also be competing this week despite just arriving in Johnson City earlier this month.

For more on the Lady Bucs, visit ETSUBucs.com for a complete recap of the day's play, or watch live scoring from the event by visiting Golfstat.com.