Pirates Set To Open Spring Season
February 11, 2011 | Women's Golf
Feb. 11, 2011
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Tournament Preview
GREENVILLE, N.C. - The East Carolina women's golf team will look to build on its successful fall season when it opens play Sunday, Feb. 13 at the UCF Challenge in Sorrento, Fla. at the RedTail Golf Club.
Seven Top 50 teams highlight the field for this weekend, including No. 14 Tulane and No. 16 Texas. Nine participating teams qualified for the NCAA Regionals last year. The 2011 UCF Challenge will feature three rounds of play with Sunday and Monday's play starting from both the first and 10th tees at 8:30 a.m. Tuesday's final round will feature an 8:45 a.m. shotgun start.
The Pirates, who enter this weekend's action ranked No. 47 by Golfstat and No. 51 by GolfWeek, captured their 19th team title at the UNCG-Starmount Fall Classic in the first event of the 2010-11 season. In its 11 years of existence, ECU has won at least one event every season and in four tournaments in 2010 claimed a pair of Top 2 finishes and finished no worse than ninth in the other two.
RedTail will play at a 6,319-yard layout for the event with a par of 72. Although just its fifth year of existence, the UCF Challenge has seen some top competition, including three eventual national champions (Duke in 2007, USC in 2008 and Arizona State in 2009) and numerous individuals who now compete on the LPGA Tour.
Senior Amber Littman (Stoney Creek) leads the team with a 73.27 stroke average and has recorded four Top-20 finishes, three of those in the Top-7 to close out the fall. Currently she owns a career stroke average of 75.69, which ranks fourth all-time at ECU.
Fellow upperclassman Amy Otteson (Wilson) set a new school-record when she fired a second round seven-under par 65 (33-32) at the Las Vegas Collegiate Showdown besting the old mark by two shots. Currently she boasts a 75.45 stroke average and took home a share of eighth place at the UNCG Starmount Classic and Lady Pirate Intercollegiate.
Pirate newcomer Fanny Wolte (Graz, Austria) opened her collegiate career with an eighth place finish at the UNCG Starmount Classic (77-71=148), she followed that with a pair of Top-15's including a career-best third place finish at the Lady Pirate Intercollegiate (71-74-71=217).
Pirate fans can get updated scoring by logging on to www.Golfstat.com.
