Wednesday, April 11, 2007

                BUIES CREEK, N.C. (April 11, 2007) - Powered by a hole in one on the 180-yard, 14^th hole at Keith Hills Country Club, ETSU freshman Laura Jansone (Jurmala, Latvia) enjoyed a runner up finish Wednesday in the third and final round of the Atlantic Sun Conference Women's Golf Championship.

            Jansone, along with sophomore Lucy Gould (Bargoed, Wales), posted Top 6 finishes on the individual leaderboard, helping the Lady Bucs to a commendable second place finish on the team leaderboard. Host and defending champion Campbell won the team competition by a convincing 29 strokes. It is the second year in a row ETSU has finished second to the Fighting Camels.

            "We knew that we could beat Campbell, but on their home course they had that advantage," said ETSU head coach Stefanie Reynolds. "They played well and won the event, give them credit. We hate finishing second, but we did come back and played well on the last day. It says something for our future to have a freshman finishing second and a sophomore finish sixth."

            Jansone finished second to Campbell's Alejandra Shaw, who was the main contributor to Campbell's lop-sided win, finishing 14 strokes better than the field. While Shaw ran away with the tournament trophy, Jansone finished with the shot of the tournament thanks to her 5-wood shot on the Par 3 14^th.

            "It was a pretty good shot, obviously," said Jansone. "I thought it went over the green, and then when we got there coach told me there weren't any balls behind the green. We checked the hole and there it was. It was exciting - an amazing feeling."

            Along with Jansone, Gould finished sixth, while junior Natalia Giraldo (Cali, Colombia) was the only other ETSU player in the Top 20 with a tie for 17^th. Other ETSU results included a tie for 23^rd by Sinead O'Sullivan (Galway, Ireland) and a tied for 26^th by Maria Ringdahl (Oland, Sweden).

            With the runner up finish, the Lady Bucs conclude a 2006-07 season which saw them enjoy more success than in any other season, including a team championship at the Draper Valley Invitational, six Top 4 team finishes, numerous team records for single round and tournament score, and the program's first individual outright championship. Their ranking No. 59 national ranking for the year is a program best, and also gives them an outside shot at a possible NCAA at-large berth later this year.

            For more on ETSU women's golf throughout the offseason, visit ETSUBucs.com and click on the women's golf link.