April 24, 2009
The UMass Lowell golf team was selected as the No. 8 seed in the East Region as the NCAA Division II Tournament field was announced Friday afternoon.
The NCAA East/Atlantic Region Championship is slated for May 4-6 at the Glades Spring Resort in Daniels, WV. The Regional is hosted by Concord University and the West Virginia Intercollegiate Athletic Conference (WVIAC).
Adelphi was awarded the top seed while Post University, St. Thomas Aquinas and Goldey-Beacom College were selected 2-4.
American International College was picked No. 5 and was followed by No. 6 Southern New Hampshire and No. 7 Le Moyne. No. 9 Wilmington and No. 10 Dowling completed the team portion of the regional while five individuals also made the field: Andrew Lee (Dominican), Kent St. Charles (Pace), Dan Garcia (Caldwell) and Matt Horton (Saint Rose).
The top five teams and two individuals (not with teams) from each regional advance to the NCAA Championship May 19-22 at the Loomis Trail Golf Club in Blaine, WA.
“We are thrilled to be representing the university at the NCAA East Regional Golf Tournament as a team for the second consecutive year,” said fifth-year Head Coach Gary Mucica. “It has been a long and rewarding season starting way back with our August tryouts, highlighted by our Northeast-10 Conference Championship runner-up finish and with locking down our tournament selection at the River Hawk Invitational last weekend.”
The bid marks the second straight year UMass Lowell earned a place in the NCAA regional. Last year, the River Hawks earned the No. 6 seed and finished sixth in the region.
“After our sixth place finish, we left feeling good about our team but disappointed we didn't play to our potential and vowing to return this year with the same and more seasoned team this year,” Mucica noted. “We know how to win, we know we can compete with anyone in the region and we have high but humble expectations of ourselves.”
Sophomore Thomas Ayala (East Taunton, MA) and junior Patrick Bean (Fitchburg, MA) have emerged as UMass Lowell’s top players in the spring with averages in the 70s.
Ayala, who shot in the 70s in eight of 12 rounds this season, leads all River Hawks with a 79.40 average, highlighted by a 73 in the second round of the Mike Bello Invitational at Le Moyne. Ayala posted a 77.57 average in the fall.
Bean has maintained his form from the fall (79.64) with a 79.75, highlighted by a 73 in the second round of the River Hawk Invitational last week.
Senior Anthony Gallardo (Methuen, MA), UMass Lowell’s leader in the fall with a sterling 75.29, has carded an 80.08 clip in the spring, but has shot in the 70s in four of his last six rounds.
Junior Brendan Livingston (Westford, MA) capped the spring with an 81.38 clip, just up from his 79.17 average in the fall; while sophomore Andrew Albrecht (Georgetown, ONT) has maintained an 81.89 average, just up from a 79.25 clip last fall.
“We will be taking a team of seasoned players each of whom is among the better players in the region,” said Mucica. “We went about our business in the spring season with the determination to regain our rightful position among the best teams and by grinding it out each week slowly we moved up in each weeks ranking, culminating in our eighth place seeding.”
