JOHNSON CITY, Tenn. (May 7, 2007) - For the second straight year, the No. 13-ranked ETSU men's golf team will have to fight its way through the NCAA West Regional to make the NCAA Championships.

            On Monday, the NCAA once again used a teleconference call to announce regional pairings for the East, Central and West regions, which act as qualifiers for the NCAA Championships - with the top 10 teams in each region making up the final field in the national tournament. Under the direction of current head coach Fred Warren, the Bucs will be making their 15^th regional appearance, but only their second West region appearance in program history.

            The NCAA West Regional will be hosted by Arizona State May 17-19 at the ASU Karsten Golf Course in Tempe, Ariz.

            "There are so many good teams in the East we knew there was a chance we'd head out west again," said Warren, whose team was seeded fifth in their region. "We went to Tucson earlier this year to play in Arizona's tournament, and we had a chance to stop by Arizona State's course to get familiar with the clubhouse and see the course some. Of course it would have been more convenient to play in the East Regional in Atlanta, but I think this formula of balancing the regions is a good process and we're fine with wherever we have to play."

ETSU has a strong history of NCAA success, having reached regional play in 15 of the last 19 years, and having reached the NCAA Championship 15 times in the history of the program. In fact, the Bucs enjoyed national finishes as high as sixth in 1975, third in 1996 and ninth in 2001. A year ago, the Bucs finished 21^st in the NCAA Championships.

Some of the more recognizable teams in the West field include, by seed: No. 1 UCLA, No. 2 Stanford, No. 3 UNLV, No. 4 USC, No. 5 ETSU, No. 6 BYU, No. 7 Arizona State, No. 8 Wake Forest, No. 9 Arizona and No. 10 UC-Irvine.

For more on ETSU men's golf and NCAA postseason play, visit ETSUBucs.com. Fans can also get more regional information at http://thesundevils.cstv.com/sports/m-golf/spec-rel/050407aaf.html