Lady Rebel Linksters Selected For NCAA Regional Competition

April 28, 2003

OXFORD, Miss. - Last season, Ole Miss head coach Meghan Bolger's waiting game with the NCAA was over early in the day. This season, the suspense was played out a bit longer, but the results were much sweeter as the Lady Rebels were selected to play in the NCAA East Regional for only the third time in school history.

Ole Miss has participated in the NCAA Regionals in 1998 and 1999. The Lady Rebels were placed in the East Regional both times prior to this selection.

The Lady Rebels are the 18th-seeded team in the East Regional, which will be played May 8-10 at Salem Country Club in Winston-Salem, N.C. Wake Forest is the host school for the event. Eight teams will advance from each of the three Regionals to compete in the NCAA Championships.

Ole Miss' best finish at the NCAA Tournament also happened to be its first appearance in the post season event, as the Lady Rebels finished tied with Duke for 15th with a score of 312-314-312-938.

"We are so excited about being selected to continue our season in the NCAA Regional," said head coach Meghan Bolger. "This is the culmination of a year of hard work on the part of this team and coaching staff. I can't think of a better reward for hard work for this team.

"We have a job to do now," Bolger continued. "We have to get back out on the course and put in more hard work. We have a week to prepare for our trip to Wake Forest and we want to make the most of it."

Nine teams from the Southeastern Conference were selected for post season play. Also competing in the East Regional are SEC foes: Auburn, Vanderbilt, Georgia, South Carolina and Mississippi State. Two other teams, Florida and Tennessee, were selected for play in the Central Region.

"This team and Coach Bolger deserve this honor of playing in the post season," said Lynnette Johnson, Associate Athletics Director and Senior Woman Administrator. "This team has worked hard to get into the post season, and this is the culmination of the hard work they put in day-to-day in practice. Outside of conference play, post season play in the NCAA is what it's all about."

The Lady Rebels used solid outings against some of the top teams to help solidify the berth in the post season. Ole Miss posted winning or even records in head-to-head competition with Mississippi State, North Carolina State and Florida State among others. The Lady Rebels are ranked 49th in the Golfstat computer rankings and 55th in the Golfweek/Sagarin rankings.

"The NCAA looks at several things when making their selection and it's a combination of things all year long," said Bolger. "They look at strength of schedule, and your spring season means a lot. We beat some good teams and we played steady all year. That's the main thing that helped us this season."

The Lady Rebels turned in six top 10 finishes on the year, four of those finishes came in the top five. Ole Miss finished in the top five at the Beacon Woods Invitational (3rd), Pat Bradley Championships (4th), Tulane Invitational (5th), and the Waterlefe Invitational (5th). Lady Rebels finished in the top 20 of tournaments 13 times on the season.

NCAA EAST REGIONAL FIELD1.  Duke (Atlantic Coast Conference)2.  Arizona3.  Auburn (Southeastern Conference)4.  Vanderbilt5.  Wake Forest6.  Georgia7.  South Carolina8.  Tulane9.  North Carolina10. Florida State11. South Florida (Conference USA)12. East Carolina13. Furman14. North Carolina-Wilmington (Big South Conference)15. North Carolina State16. Mississippi State17. Penn State18.  OLE MISS19. Western Carolina (Southern Conference)20. Georgia State (Atlantic Sun Conference)21. St. Francis (Pennsylvania) (Northeast Conference)*Automatic qualifiers via confernce championships in brackets

The University of Mississippi Athletics

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