BATON ROUGE – The LSU women’s golf team, third in each of the last two NCAA Women’s Golf Championships, is ranked 10th in the first Golf World, NGCA Division I Women’s Preseason Coaches’ Poll.
The Lady Tigers, which returns two members of last year’s third-place team, open the 2012 fall portion of their season on Sept. 9 at the College of Charleston’s Cougar Classic.
The defending champions, the Alabama Crimson Tide, is the No. 1 team in the poll, earning 19 of the 27 first-place votes and is No. 1 for the first time since March 2011. UCLA claimed six first-place votes and is No. 2 in the poll, while USC is third.
The other teams getting first place votes are No. 4 Arizona State and No. 5 Duke. In the 6-9 spots ahead of LSU are North Carolina and three SEC teams, Auburn, Vanderbilt and Florida. Another SEC team, Georgia, is right behind LSU in 11th.
In all, 10 SEC teams are ranked in the top 25 with Tennessee at 13, new member Texas A&M (15), South Carolina (17) and Arkansas (23).
The preseason Golf World, NGCA Coaches’ Pre-Season Poll: (First place poll in parenthesis)
Rank, Team, Points, NCAA Finish
1. Alabama (19), 655, Win
2. UCLA (6), 638, 8
3. USC, 578, 2
4. Arizona State (1), 559, T6
5. Duke (1), 525, 15
6. North Carolina, 470, 10
7. Auburn, 452, DNP
8. Vanderbilt, 380, 11
9. Florida, 354, 12
10. LSU, 324, 3
11. Georgia, 311, DNP
12. Virginia, 294, 4
13. Tennessee, 272, 19
14. Arizona, 260, DNP
15. Texas A&M, 255, T16
16. Colorado, 239, 18
17. South Carolina, 237, 5
18. California, 226, DNP
19. Oklahoma, 200, T6
20. Baylor, 176, T16
21. Oklahoma State, 175, DNP
22. Purdue, 173, 9
23. Arkansas, 143, 23
24. Pepperdine, 127, 21
25. NC State, 126, T13