The NCAA Women's Golf Championship Committee announced Monday that the No. 3 Auburn Tigers women's golf team will play as the No. 2 seed in the NCAA East Regional Championship.
The tournament will be held May 6-8 at Ironwood Country Club in Greenville, N.C., and the Tigers will be competing against 23 other teams, including the first seed, Duke.
The Tigers recently competed in the SEC Championship in Tuscaloosa where they finished fifth, with junior Cydney Clanton, sophomore Haley Wilson and senior Candace Schepperle all finishing in the top 20 individually.
"On a high note, I saw some great things out of everyone on the team, which will help us prepare during the next few weeks," said coach Kim Evans, "but, on the low side, we did not come over here to do anything but win and with that. We are disappointed."
But Evans could not stay disappointed for long, because Tuesday the Southeastern Conference announced its All-SEC teams, and they included three Auburn Tigers.
Clanton made All-SEC first team, Schepperle second team and Carlie Yadloczky made the All-SEC freshman team, just in time for regionals.
With a fifth place SEC finish behind them, the Tigers are now focusing on the upcoming tournament in North Carolina, trying to prepare and take their final exams at the same time.
"A lot of preparation will be off the golf course," Clanton said, "not necessarily practicing, but mentally preparing for next week."
There are three NCAA Regional tournaments, East, West and Central.
The University of Alabama, Louisiana State University and the University of Arkansas were chosen to go to the West Regional in Palo Alto, Calif., while the University of Georgia and the University of Mississippi were chosen to go to the Central in Columbus, Ind.
"The East region is traditionally the toughest region to advance out of, but we are looking forward to the challenge," Evans said. "We felt like we were going to stay east, and we are very excited to go play golf."
The Tigers are confident in their ability to succeed at the tournament and know what it will take to win, having competed against all but seven of the teams they will be facing at regionals.
"We kind of keep every tournament at equal importance," Schepperle said, "and I know if we all do our part, we'll come out all right."
With 24 teams competing and only eight advancing, Auburn will have to perform well to advance to the championship finals.
"I think our team as a whole is pretty intimidating," Clanton said, "because we have Candace and I, and our three, four and five can play well on any day."
The competition at the tournament will be tough, including seven top-25 teams, including No.4 Duke, No.13 Tennessee, No.14 Florida and No. 21 Vanderbilt.
"We have a really strong team," Schepperle said, "if we get four good scores in three days, we're going to win by, I predict, a lot."
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