Belton, TX – The University of Mary Hardin-Baylor women's golf team will return to the NCAA Division III National Championships for the third straight year and the ninth time overall when the tournament opens Tuesday, March 14
th. The 2013 NCAA Division III Women's Golf National Championship runs through Friday and will be played at the Sandestin Resort in Destin, Florida.
The Cru women enter the tournament as the #1 overall seed in the 21-team, six-individual field. UMHB will be paired with Methodist University and Claremont-Mudd-Scripps in the first two rounds of the tournament. The Cru will begin teeing off at 12:50 PM in Tuesday's opening round and will begin Wednesday's second round with tee times beginning at 8:20 AM. Pairings and tee times for Thursday and Friday will be determined by scoring in the first two rounds. The UMHB women will be making their 13
th overall national tournament appearance and their ninth total appearance in the NCAA National Tournament. The Cru women capped a streak of four straight NAIA National Tournament appearances by winning the NAIA National Title in 2000. The UMHB women finished fourth in their inaugural NCAA Division III National Championship appearance in 2001, posted four straight runner-up finishes in the NCAA's and then finished seventh in the country in 2006. The UMHB women finished 14
th in the 2011 National Tournament and claimed sixth place in last year's event. The Cru will be joined in this year's field by American Southwest Conference rival U.T.-Tyler, giving the ASC 10 of the 111 golfers playing in the event. Methodist won the 2012 title, giving the Monarchs 15 consecutive NCAA Division III National Championships.
The UMHB women earned an automatic bid to the NCAA Tournament with a 26-stroke victory in the ASC Championship Tournament. It was the tenth overall conference title for the Cru. UMHB will field a line-up that includes two juniors and three underclassmen in the National Tournament.
Sara Eckert (Jr., Brenham) and
Kelly Gonyea (Jr., Harker Heights) are the two veterans in the top five for the Cru and they will be joined by
Taylor O'Rear (So., Salado),
Victoria Thane (So., Stamford) and
Elizabeth Davis (Fr., Houston). The ASC Championship was one of three tournament wins for the Cru this season along with victories in the Alamo Classic and the prestigious Jekyll Island Invitational, as UMHB topped Methodist in that event. O'Rear leads the Cru women in stroke average at 79.11 on the season and she won her second straight ASC Individual Championship after shooting 82-80=162 to edge teammate Eckert by one shot. That was one of three individual wins for O'Rear this year. She also won the Golfweek Division III Preview and the Alamo Classic. Davis is second on the team with a 79.67 stroke average, Gonyea has a stroke average of 79.95, Thane is averaging 81.26 and Eckert stands at 81.37. As a team, the UMHB women enter the NCAA Tournament ranked #1 in the country in the Golfstat head-to-head rankings. The Cru is ranked #2 in the country in the Golf World/WGCA Top 25 Coaches Poll behind Methodist.
O'Rear, Eckert and Davis were named to the ASC All-Conference First Team and Gonyea was a Second Team ASC All-Conference selection. Kirby won ASC Women's Golf Coach of the Year honors for the tenth time.
“We are always excited to play in the national tournament and it was certainly a goal of ours to start the year,” Cru head coach
Darla Kirby said. “The girls have competed very well and worked so hard this year. We are happy to be playing in Nationals, but we are certainly not satisfied just to be here.”
Four of the Cru's five players have NCAA Tournament experience. Eckert and Gonyea are both playing in their third National Tournament while O'Rear and Thane will make their second NCAA Tournament appearances. Thane shot 313 and tied for 20
th place, Gonyea posted a 316 to tie for 28th, O'Rear carded a 322 to tie for 46
th place and Eckert's 336 was good for a tie for 77
th place last year. Eckert shot 262 and tied for 62
nd place while Gonyea tied for 77
th place with a 268 total in 2011 when the tournament was shortened to 54 holes due to thunderstorms during the final round. Davis will be playing in the NCAA Tournament for the first time in her career. You can follow the 2013 NCAA Division III National Tournament through live scoring. Those links are available on
www.ncaa.com and
www.golfstat.com. There will also be some video coverage of Friday's final round available through
www.ncaa.com. You can download the 2013 NCAA Division III Women's Golf National Championship Program at the following link:
http://www.ncaa.com/DIIIWomensGolf.
