Lauren Gebauer will look to continue her fine senior season as she will tee it up from the No. 2 spot for the Irish on Friday.

Notre Dame Women's Golf To Play in Central Regional Preview

Sept. 22, 2004

Notre Dame, Ind. – The Notre Dame women’s golf team will be competing in the program’s first-ever Central Regional preview this weekend in Lubbock, Texas at the Jeannine McHaney Invitational. The Irish will be part of a very strong and competitive 18-team field that will take to the par 72, 6,234-yard Jerry S. Rawls Golf Course Sept. 24-26.

Missouri, the top-ranked team in the latest golfweek.com poll, headlines a field that includes eight teams ranked in the top-50. Oklahoma (15), Iowa State (16), and Arkansas (19) join the Tigers in the top-20. Iowa State was victorious at the Notre Dame Invitational on Sept. 4-5, finishing 12 strokes better than the Irish, who placed third.

Notre Dame earned a chance to compete at the McHaney Invitational after qualifying for the NCAAs last spring. It was the Irish’s inaugural trip to the women’s national tournament. Texas Tech University will play host to the competition this weekend and the NCAA Central Regional this upcoming spring.

The Irish, who have not competed since the Lady Northern Invitational in Ann Arbor, Mich. Sept. 11-12, are coming off a solid two weeks of qualifying play. Junior co-captain Katie Brophy (Spokane, WA/Gonzaga Prep) fired an 11-over par 227 at the Lady Northern, which included a three-under par 69 in the second round. Brophy will lead the group of five Irish golfers to Lubbock that also includes junior Lauren Gebauer (Columbus, OH/Upper Arlington), who matched Brophy’s team-low score of 227 in Michigan, and Noriko Nakazaki (Hanover Park, IL/Hoffman Estates). Nakazaki, a sophomore, has been one of the more consistent golfers for the Irish so far this season as all six of her tournament rounds have counted towards the team score.

Jane Lee (Palos Verdes Estates, CA/Peninsula) is looking to continue her solid freshman campaign at Notre Dame with a good three-round showing against some of the region’s top golfers. Sophomore Stacy Brown (The Woodlands, TX/The Woodlands) qualified for the fifth spot on the Irish roster and will return to her native Texas to compete in this weekend’s action.

“We had our best qualifying of the semester and hopefully that is a sign of good things to come for this weekend,” stated Notre Dame head coach Debby King, whose team is 30th in the golfweek.com rankings. “If we have a top-five finish we’d be very pleased because we are competing against some of the best teams in the central region.”

Competition gets underway each day with a shotgun start beginning at 8:00 a.m. (CT). For results of each day’s round please log onto the Texas Tech University web site at www.texastech.com. To receive additional information please log on to www.und.com or call the Notre Dame athletics hotline at (574) 631-3000.

2004 Jeannine McHaney Invitational Field: Arkansas, Arkansas State, Baylor, Iowa State, Kansas, Kansas State, Missouri, Nebraska, New Mexico State, Notre Dame, Oklahoma, Oral Roberts, Sam Houston State, Southern Methodist, Texas Christian, Texas Tech, Tulsa, Xavier.

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