Wake Forest Hopes to Continue Success at Lady Gator
Demon Deacons enter tournament with consecutive individual medalists

Feb. 21, 2008

Live Scoring

The 13th-ranked Wake Forest women's golf team returns to the SunTrust Lady Gator Invitational this weekend in Gainesville, Fla. for the first time since 2005, when the Demon Deacons won the event by 19 strokes.

The Deacs will send consecutive individual medalists, freshman Natalie Sheary and junior Nannette Hill, along with senior Laura Crawford, junior Jean Chua and freshman Allie Bodemann to compete in the three-day event.

"I'm excited about the way they're playing," Wake Forest head coach Dianne Dailey said. "It's going to be a pretty good field. At the same time, it's a good opportunity for us to make another good showing. So, hopefully everyone will play well."

Crawford is the only current Deacon golfer who competed in the event in 2005.

The Demon Deacon men's golf team participated in the SunTrust Gator Invitational earlier this month, which should aid the women in the chipping and putting facets of the game, according to Coach Dailey.

Wake has played against several teams competing this weekend, including No. 5 Florida and ACC foe North Carolina. The teams will play the par-70, 5,907-yard Mark Bostick Golf Course.

"We're going back to a course that we've won on. But at the same time, it's a new group so you have to be careful," Dailey said. "You have to say that it's possible, we can do this, but we have to make sure we're paying attention to what we're doing. We need to hit the shots we know we can hit."

The Deacs are coming off their first tournament of the spring season that saw Sheary capture her first collegiate victory to give Wake back-to-back medalists for the first time in program history. The team finished sixth at the Northrop Grumman Regional Challenge last week in Palos Verdes, Calif.

Round one is set for Friday with the Deacs scheduled for a 10 a.m. tee time. Wake will play the first round with Florida and UT Chattanooga. Florida has won the last two Lady Gator Invitationals.

The weather in Gainesville could be a problem as rain is projected for Friday and Saturday, according to weather.com.

Live scoring will be available at www.golfstat.com as well as www.GatorZone.com.