University of North Carolina Athletics
Carolina's Women's Golf Team Receives NCAA Regional Bid
April 26, 2004 | Women's Golf
April 26, 2004
Chapel Hill, N.C. - North Carolina's women's golf team was one of 21 teams to receive a bid to participate in the NCAA East Regional. The 54-hole event will be played May 6-8 at the Mission Inn Golf and Tennis Resort in Howey-in-the-Hills, Fla.
In addition to the 21 teams, three individuals received a bid to play in the regional. The top eight teams and top two individuals not on those eight teams will advance on to the NCAA Championship to be played May 18-21 at the Grand National Lake Course in Opelika, Ala.
Five Atlantic Coast Conference teams received a bid to the East Regional. In addition to Carolina, Duke, Wake Forest, Florida State and NC State will be among the participants.
"We are excited to be going to the East Regional," says North Carolina head coach Sally Austin. "It is an outstanding field of teams and we will have to play well to make the top eight to move on to the NCAAs. We welcome the opportunity and the challenge."
The Tar Heels, ranked 20th in the latest Golfweek/Sagarin Rankings, have won two tournaments this year and posted four top-five finishes. Carolina captured the team championship at the LSU/Cleveland Golf Classic and the Lady Gamecock Classic earlier this spring. The Tar Heels finished in third place at the ACC Championship and tied for fourth at the ACC/SEC Challenge.
The Tar Heels are led by a pair of seniors - Ashley Prange, from Noblesville, Ind., and Meaghan Francella, from Port Chester, N.Y. Prange captured two individual titles this year, winning the LSU/Cleveland Golf Classic and the Lady Gamecock Classic. Prange has posted eight top-25 finishes in Carolina's nine events this year. In addition to her two wins, Prange's other top-10 finishes were a third-place finish at the ACC Championship, a tie for fifth at the Franklin Street Partners Invitational and a ninth-place finish at the Betsy Rawls Longhorn Invitational. Francella has also posted eight top-25 finishes in Carolina's nine events this year. Coming off a runner-up finish at the ACC Championship, Francella's other top-10 finishes include a third-place finish at the LSU/Cleveland Golf Classic, a fourth-place finish at the Franklin Street Partners Invitational, a tie for fifth at the Lady Gamecock Classic and 10th-place finishes at the Betsy Rawls Longhorn Invitational and the ACC/SEC Challenge.
Carolina has received a bid to the NCAA East Regional each year since the regional format was instituted in women's golf in 1993. This marks Carolina's 12th appearance in the NCAA East Regional.
In addition to the five ACC participants, the other schools at the East Regional will be Auburn, Oklahoma State, UNLV, Florida, Tulane, LSU, Tennessee, Furman, South Carolina, Mississippi, UNC Wilmington, Alabama, Miami (Fla.), Campbell, St. Francis and Southern. The three individual participants are Adriene Millican of East Carolina, Carol Green of James Madison and Natalia Novorro of Florida Atlantic.
![Images from the first round of the 2026 Gators Invitational on Friday, March 6, 2026 at Mark Bostick Golf Course at the University of Florida in Gainesville, FL. [Photo by Matt Pendleton Photography for North Carolina Tar Heels Athletics]](https://images.sidearmdev.com/resize?url=https%3A%2F%2Fdxbhsrqyrr690.cloudfront.net%2Fsidearm.nextgen.sites%2Func.sidearmsports.com%2Fimages%2F2026%2F3%2F7%2F260306-NCAAWGOLF-UNC-GatorsInvitational-0828-MattPendleton_copy.jpg&height=340&type=webp)
Players Mentioned
