Sunday, October 22, 2006

            GREENVILLE, N.C. (Oct. 22, 2006) - Freshman Laura Jansone (Jurmala, Latvia) became the first individual tournament champion in ETSU women's golf history, matching her season low for the second time in three days by firing a 1-under-par 71 Sunday to finish as the co-champion of the Lady Pirate Invitational hosted by East Carolina University at the Bradford Creek Golf Course.

            Jansone finished with a three-round score of 216 (71-74-71) to tie with Birmingham Southern's Sara Hunt for first place on the leaderboard. In addition to her individual effort, Jansone helped power the Buccaneers to a fourth-place finish on the team leaderboard, an improvement of six spots from their 10^th-place standing after the first round.

            "To have one of our freshmen win the event and be the co-champion is awesome," said ETSU head coach Stefanie Reynolds, whose team finished at 889 and nine strokes off the pace of champion Birmingham Southern. "As a team, I'm very proud of the ladies. Being 10^th after the first round we needed to come back with some strong play and we did two rounds in a row. Plus, we had rain today so to have one of the best rounds of any team out there is encouraging."

            Jansone, who has won several events back in her home country of Latvia, said this victory is special.

            "It was definitely amazing and I'm glad to be the first woman to ever win a (golf) championship at ETSU," Jansone said. "The competition level here is definitely higher and I'm glad I've raised my game to compete here. I might be the first, but I think we have the talent for my teammates to win as well."

            Along with Jansone, junior Maria Ringdahl (Oland, Sweden) had a strong showing with a sixth-place finish at 220. Meanwhile, sophomore Lucy Gould (Bargoed, Wales) tied for 36^th, while freshman Sinead O'Sullivan (Galway, Ireland) tied for 51^st after posting the second-best ETSU score of the day with a 72 in the final round.

            The Bucs, who have competed in five tournaments so far this season and have three Top 5 finishes, will conclude their busy fall slate beginning Oct. 30 at the Edwin Watts Palmetto Intercollegiate in Kiawah Island, S.C.  ETSU fans can stay informed of the team's progress by visiting ETSUBucs.com.