Huskers Earn NCAA Regional Bid

Lincoln - The Nebraska women's golf team earned its ninth NCAA Regional berth in the past 13 seasons, when the Huskers claimed a spot in the NCAA Central Regional hosted by Texas A&M at the Traditions Club in Bryan, Texas, May 11-13.

The NCAA announced its 63-team tournament field on Monday from Indianapolis. The NCAA Tournament is made up of three 21-team regionals. The Central Regional will present Nebraska with possibly the toughest field in the tournament, as No. 1 Duke occupies the top seed in the Central Regional, followed by USC, Pepperdine and Big 12 champion Texas A&M.

Other Big 12 teams included in the Central Regional field include Big 12 runner-up Oklahoma State, Missouri, Baylor and Texas, as six of the 12 teams from the conference earned NCAA bids.

Nebraska Coach Robin Krapfl said the Huskers were pleased to be back in a regional tournament for the first time since 2003.

"We're obviously excited to be heading back to Texas A&M for the Central Regional," Krapfl said. "We definitely had a good feeling about our chances going into the tournament selection because we have played pretty solid golf throughout our season. We believe the Traditions course at Texas A&M is a good course that suits a lot of the individual golf games on our team."

Krapfl also said the Huskers would have their work cut out for them to advance to the NCAA Championships at the Scarlet Course in Columbus, Ohio, May 23-26.

"We are going to be going up against some great competition, including the No. 1 team in the country and the Big 12 champions, so it is going to be a tough test," Krapfl said. "But we have a team with only two seniors in our lineup, so it is going to be some great experience for all of our golfers, especially our younger players. The team certainly feels good about going down to Texas and making a good impression."

The top eight teams from each of the three regional tournaments will advance to the 24-team NCAA Championships. In addition to the top eight team qualifiers, the top two individuals from a non-qualifying team will also make the trip to nationals.

Senior Stephanie Ruiz will lead the Huskers into NCAA Regional play after earning second-team All-Big 12 honors in 2006. Junior Chrissie McArdle, sophomores Elli Brown and Allison Stewart and senior Sara Sackett will round Nebraska's top five at the tournament.

The Huskers will be making their first trip to a regional since playing host to the NCAA Central Regional at the Firethorn Golf Course in Lincoln in 2003. That season, Nebraska finished fifth among the 21 teams in the regional and advanced to the NCAA Championships in West Lafayette, Ind., where they finished 22nd.

The 2003 season capped a streak of four straight NCAA Regional appearances for the Huskers from 2000 to 2003. The Huskers also made four straight trips to NCAA Regional competition from 1994 to 1997.

2006 NCAA Central Regional Field
May 11-13, Texas A&M (Bryan/College Station, Texas)
Traditions Club

Participating Teams
1. Duke (ACC Champion)
2. USC
3. Pepperdine
4. Texas A&M (Big 12 Champion)
5. Florida
6. Oklahoma State
7. Kent State (Mid-American Champion)
8. Ohio State
9. Michigan State
10. SMU
11. TCU
12. Missouri
13. Baylor
14. Tulsa
15. Nebraska
16. Northwestern
17. Texas
18. Birminghan-Southern (Big South Champion)
19. Jacksonville State (Ohio Valley Champion)
20. Jackson State (SWAC Champion)
21. St. Francis, Pa. (Northeast Champion)

Individuals
1. Samantha Richdale, Illinois State
2. Amy Schmucker, Michigan
3. Amanda Costner, Kansas