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NCAA golf

Defending champion Alabama along with USC and Duke were named the No. 1 seeds in the three regionals for the upcoming NCAA women's golf championship.

Seventy-two teams in three regions - East, Central and West - will begin the quest to be one of 24 teams and six individuals from non-advancing teams at the NCAA Championship to be played May 21-24 at the University of Georgia.

Alabama, which includes senior Jennifer Kirby from Paris, Ont., is the top seed in the East Regional which will be played at Auburn. The SEC champions, who won five of six team titles in the spring schedule, are led by junior Stephanie Meadow who captured the individual SEC championship. The rest of the region is stacked with fellow SEC combatants Arkansas, ranked No. 2, UCLA, looking for its fourth collegiate title, North Carolina, which won the fall preview event at Auburn's University Club course and Virgina, which has finished fourth at the NCAA championships in each of the last two years, rounding out the top five. The East Regional includes 11 teams that won its respective conference tournaments.

Duke, which secured the ACC Championship by a whopping 24 shots, is the No. 1 seed in the Central Regional which will be played in Oklahoma, the site of this year's U.S. Women's Amateur Pub Links. Oklahoma, coming off a fourth place finish in the Big 12 championship, is the No. 2 seed on its home course. Led by junior Anne-Catherine Tanguay of Quebec City, the Sooners will be trying to reach the NCAA final for the second straight year. Florida slots in as the No. 3 seed. The Gators were one of the hottest teams in the fall campaign, winning twice, but stumbled in the spring, finishing 13th in the SEC Championship. The Washington Huskies, fresh off their second place finish in the Pac-12 Championship, are seeded fourth. The Huskies will be led by Soo-Bin Kim of Coquitlam, B.C., whose seven top-10 results this season equals the second best total in school history. Fellow B.C. player Jennifer Yang has also been named to the Huskies lineup for next week's matches. Arizona State, which boasts the winningest women's program in NCAA history, round out the top five. NC State, which includes Augusta James of Bath, Ont., and Brittany Marchand of Orangeville, Ont., are the No. 8 seed while Coastal Carolina, featuring Brittany Henderson of Smiths Falls, Ont., is the 13th seed in the Central Regional.

Team Canada National Team member Christine Wong of Richmond, B.C., is one of the six individual players who will be competing for a spot in the final in the Central Regional. The senior at San Diego State will be making her fourth straight NCAA regional appearance and is coming off a a third-place finish at the Mountain West tournament. Wong, the two-time Mountain West Women's Golfer of the Year, has five top-20 finishes and three top-10s this season. She was chosen all-conference for the fourth consecutive season.

Pac-12 champions USC tops the field in the West Regional which will be played in Stanford, where the Trojans captured the Stanford Invitational earlier in the year. Arizona, which includes freshman Anna Kim from Toronto, is the No. 2 seed followed by Vanderbilt, Purdue and Stanford rounding out the top five.

Portland State sophomore A Ram Choi of Surrey, B.C., is one of six individuals competing in the West Regional. The Big Sky Conference Player of the Year set a new school scoring record this year wiht a 74.43 scoring average. She finished with one win and two more runner-up results in 10 tournaments this year.

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