May 11, 2007

Baton Rouge, La. - Western Carolina shot 308 as a team on Friday at the University Club, slipping to 19th overall at the NCAA Women's Golf East Regional. Freshman Desiree Karlsson shot a two-over, 146, to fall into a tie for 40th to lead the Catamounts individually at the post-season tournament.

Western Carolina still has an opportunity at its best-ever three-round score in the NCAA tournament, needing to shoot 304 as a squad to tie the program's all-time low of 913 set back at the 2003 East Regional. The Catamounts will also be gunning for their best placement in the post-season tournament, finishing 16th in their only other appearance.

First-round, co-leader Sydnee Michaels of UCLA continues to lead, shooting 68 on Friday to stand two-strokes ahead of second-place Nannette Hill of Wake Forest, 134-to-136. Cindy LaCrosse of Louisville is third, with Kathleen Ekey (Furman), Aruka Felgueroso (Coastal Carolina), Nicole Hage (Auburn), Tiffany Joh (UCLA) and Caroline Westrup of Florida State all tied for fourth at 138.

With two individuals in the top four, UCLA leads the 21-team field with a 12-under, 564, to lead second-place Wake Forest by four strokes and top-seeded Duke (572) eight strokes in arrears. Southern Conference member, Furman, ranks fourth with a two-day score of 574, two-under par, with Purdue, Auburn and Louisville all tied for fifth.

Karlsson was nearly even par the majority of the day, posting three bogies and one birdie with the rest holed out in regulation to card the two-over, 74. The Swedish rookie will need to shoot at least one-over in Saturday's final round to tie WCU's lowest NCAA individual 54-hole tournament score of 219 carded by Brandy Andersen in 2003.

Junior Malin Fryk posted three bogies aside, birdying the 17th to finish the back nine at two-over and conclude the second round with a five-over, 77, to slip into a tie for 79th. After shooting six-over on the back nine, including a double-bogey on the par 5 17th, freshman Elin Mickelsson recovered to shoot one-over on the front nine with one bogey to finish the day tied for 87th at 155 through the first two rounds.

Rounding out Western's golfers individually were senior Bianca Melone, who matched her first-round score of 78 on Friday to stand tied for 92nd (78-78=156), with junior Kandy Carland shooting 79 for a two-round total of 157 to stand just inside the top 100, tied for 98th.

Carland will be the first Catamount to tee off in Saturday's final round, taking to the course at 1:20 pm on the front nine, concluding with Karlsson at 2:00 pm.

NCAA Women's Golf East Regional - Thru 36 Holes
The University Club - Baton Rouge, La.
  1 UCLA               281  283  556  -12
  2 Wake Forest        284  284  568   -8
  3 Duke               291  281  572   -4
  4 Furman             284  290  574   -2
 T5 Purdue             285  290  575   -1
 T5 Auburn             293  282  575   -1
 T5 Louisville         286  282  575   -1
  8 Alabama            287  289  576    E
 T9 South Carolina     290  289  579   +3
 T9 Texas A&M          291  288  579   +3
T11 North Carolina     290  292  582   +6
T11 LSU                287  295  582   +6
 13 Virginia           295  288  583   +7
 14 Florida State      292  298  590  +14
 15 Birmingham-Sou.    297  295  592  +16
 16 C. of Charleston   292  303  595  +19
 17 South Florida      306  294  600  +24
 18 N.C. State         302  303  605  +29
 19 WESTERN CAROLINA   301  308  609  +33
 20 Jacksonville St.   324  301  625  +49
 21 Jackson State      329  325  654  +78
 19 Western Carolina   301  308  609  +33
T40 Desiree Karlsson    72   74  146   +2
T79 Malin Fryk          75   77  152   +8
T87 Elin Mickelsson     76   79  155  +11
T92 Bianca Melone       78   78  156  +12
T98 Kandy Carland       78   79  157  +13

© 2009 CBS Interactive. All rights reserved. | Privacy Policy | Terms of Use | About Us | Advertise | Feedback | XML RSS Feeds