University of Tennessee Athletics
LADY VOL GOLF TEAM TEES OFF SEASON AT COUGAR CLASSIC
September 13, 2004 | Women's Golf
Sept. 13, 2004
Tournament Notes
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CHARLESTON, S.C.
The No. 12/15- ranked (Golf World/Golfweek) Lady Volunteers tee off the 2004-05 season Monday at the Cougar Classic in Charleston, S.C. The orange-clad linksters will play 36 holes on Monday and then conclude the two-day event with 18 holes on Tuesday. The tournament will be played at Yeamans Hall, a 6,026 yard-long course. Par for the event is 72.
Leading the way for Judi Pavon's squad is junior Violeta Retamoza (Aguascalientes, Mexico). For the second-straight year, she was named to the Golfweek preseason All-America squad and enters the year with the lowest-career scoring average in UT history (74.32).
Playing in the number two slot is freshman Marci Turner (Tompkinsville, Ky). She becomes the 13th freshman to earn a starting nod in the initial event of the year. She also extends the streak of a first-year UT golfer cracking the top five to four straight years.
Junior Golda Johansson qualified third for the Lady Vols. Down the stretch last season Johansson provided the Big Orange with solid play, finishing in 14th place at the SEC Championships and recording a 20th-place finish at the NCAA East Regional. Jessica Shepley (Oakville, Ontario) returns for her senior year and starts off at the number four slot. She ended last year very strong, finishing in fourth place at the SECs and taking fifth place at the NCAA Championships with a school-record total of 286 en route to earning National Golf Coaches Association All-America honors. Rounding out the initial five for Pavon's charges is sophomore Holly Cantwell (Morristown, Tenn.) The Tennessee native played in nine of 11 tournaments as a freshman and will be counted on to continue to contribute this year for UT.
This will be UT's first appearance in the Cougar Classic, which was held for the first time in 2003. That may bode well for the Big Orange as the last five times Tennessee competed in a tournament for the first time have resulted in two tournament wins and third, fourth and fifth-place finishes.
Next up on the slate for the Orange and White will be the NCAA Fall Preview, which will be held Sept. 20-22 at the The Meadows Course at Sunriver Resort in Sunriver, Ore. The event will feature the top squads from around the nation, all of which will be hoping to return to the NCAA Championships at the same course in May.
