INDIANAPOLIS, Ind. -- East Carolina's women's golf team has been selected to participate in the 2003 NCAA Division I Women's Golf Championship Regionals, as announced today by the NCAA Women's Golf Committee.

The Lady Pirates were chosen as the 12th team in the East Regional, which will be held at Salem Glen Country Club in Winston-Salem, N.C., on May 8-10.

The East Regional is one of three regional tournaments which will be held to determine the championships field. Regional tournaments are considered preliminary rounds of NCAA championships competition, and all national championships policies will apply.

A total of 324 individual participants have been selected for the regional competition. Of these players, 126 will advance to the championship finals May 20-23. Eight teams and two individuals will advance from each region.

This will mark the first time in the short history of the East Carolina women's program that the Lady Pirates have been chosen for the NCAA Regionals. The women's golf program began just three years ago.

The Pirate women finished with a record of 132-21-2 this season, including three wins over top-25 teams. The East Carolina women took home top honors in three tournaments, including the Lady Pirate Fall Intercollegiate, the Edwin Watts Carolinas Classic and the Bradford Creek Intercollegiate. Head Coach Kevin Williams led the team to a top-five finish in all but one tournament and a top-10 finish in every event in which the women participated. East Carolina is currently ranked No. 30 in the country, according to Golfstat.com.

"I feel very proud of this team," Williams said. "We headed into this season with five goals, and we have accomplished four of them. Our last goal is to make it to the NCAA Championships, and I think we have a decent shot of making it. The top eight teams in the regionals make the championships, and I think we will do well against the field of teams in the East Regional."

The championship finals will be held at Birck Boilermaker Golf Complex, West Lafayette, Indiana, hosted by the Purdue University.

The regional sites and the selected teams and individuals are listed below.

East Regional
The East regional will be played May 8-10 at Salem Glen Country Club, Winston-Salem, North Carolina, hosted by Wake Forest University. Conference automatic qualifiers are indicated in parenthesis next to the institution.

Teams:
1 Duke (Atlantic Coast Conference)
2 Arizona
3 Auburn (Southeastern Conference)
4 Vanderbilt
5 Wake Forest
6 Georgia
7 South Carolina
8 Tulane
9 North Carolina
10 Florida State
11 South Florida (Conference USA)
12 East Carolina
13 Furman
14 North Carolina-Wilmington (Big South Conference)
15 North Carolina State
16 Mississippi State
17 Penn State
18 Mississippi
19 Western Carolina (Southern Conference)
20 Georgia State (Atlantic Sun Conference)
21 St. Francis (Pennsylvania) (Northeast Conference)

Individuals:
1 Jenny Gleason, North Carolina-Greensboro
2 Tina Miller, Miami (Florida)
3 Avery Kiser, Princeton

Central Regional
The Central regional will be played May 8-10 at Firethorn Golf Club, Lincoln, Nebraska, hosted by the University of Nebraska, Lincoln. Conference automatic qualifiers are indicated in parenthesis next to the institution.

Teams:
1 California (Pacific-10 Conference)
2 Texas
3 Florida
4 Tennessee
5 New Mexico (Mountain West Conference)
6 Tulsa (Western Athletic Conference)
7 Purdue
8 Oklahoma
9 Missouri
10 Baylor
11 TCU
12 Kent State (Mid-American Conference)
13 Michigan State
14 Arkansas
15 Texas A&M
16 Indiana
17 Wisconsin
18 Kansas State
19 Nebraska
20 Yale (Ivy Group)
21 Southern University (Southwestern Athletic Conference)

Individuals:
1 Randi Gauthier, North Texas
2 Louise Kenney, Iowa State
3 Elizabeth Burden, Northwestern

West Regional
The West Regional will be played May 8-10 at Karsten Golf Course, Tempe, Arizona, hosted by Arizona State University. Conference automatic qualifiers are indicated in parenthesis next to the institution.

Teams:
1 Pepperdine
2 Southern California
3 Oklahoma State (Big 12 Conference)
4 UCLA
5 Ohio State (Big Ten Conference)
6 Arizona State
7 Stanford
8 New Mexico State (Sun Belt Conference)
9 Washington
10 UNLV
11 San Francisco
12 San Jose State
13 Oregon State
14 Denver
15 Nevada
16 Illinois
17 Washington State
18 Oral Roberts (Mid-Continent Conference)
19 Cal State Northridge (Big West Conference)
20 Portland State (Big Sky Conference)
21 Bradley (Missouri Valley Conference)

Individuals:
1 Nicole Keller, Idaho
2 Stella Lee, UC Irvine
3 Erin Kerr, Colorado