FAYETTEVILLE -- The No. 3 Arkansas Razorbacks women's golf team pulled down the first No. 1 seed in program history Wednesday, earning the top spot in the NCAA Austin Regional, which will be played May 7-9 at the UT Golf Club at the University of Texas.
The top six teams from each of four NCAA regionals will advance to the championship May 18-23 at Karsten Creek Golf Club in Stillwater, Okla. The other regionals are in Madison, Wis., San Francisco and Tallahassee, Fla. No. 4 Duke, No. 2 UCLA and No. 1 Alabama are the other top seeds, respectively.
The University of Arkansas, Fayetteville captured its first SEC championship last weekend for its program-record sixth championship of the season.
"I think of rankings and seeds as a number," said Coach Shauna Taylor when asked on The Golf Channel about entering the NCAAs as a top seed. "The first part of the year we've taken care of business, and this is a new season for us. We look forward to the opportunity of going to Austin and taking care of business."
Taylor has led the Razorbacks to the NCAAs in all of her 12 seasons as head coach.
SEC teams comprise three of the top five seeds in Austin, with No. 14 Florida and No. 24 Auburn joining the Razorbacks along with No. 7 Texas and No. 10 Michigan State.
The other Top 40 teams in Austin are No. 20 Oklahoma, No. 25 Houston, No. 28 Miami, No. 30 Baylor and No. 39 Texas A&M. Other teams in the regional are BYU, East Carolina, Texas Tech, Virginia Tech, Georgetown, Houston Baptist and Missouri State.
The Razorbacks will be led by junior Maria Fassi, the runner-up for medalist honors at the SECs, who has won five individual titles this year and has a team-best 69.7 stroke average. Fassi and junior Kaylee Benton each had 3-0 match-play records at the SECs in Hoover, Ala., last weekend.
Senior Alana Uriell, and juniors Cara Gorlei and Dylan Kim each had a victory in match play in Hoover.
Sports on 04/26/2018