BATON ROUGE – The LSU women’s golf team has been ranked in a tie for No. 22 in the Golf World/Women’s Golf Coaches Association Division I College Women’s Preseason Coaches’ Poll.
The Lady Tigers begin their 2013-14 season at the Cougar Classic, hosted by the College of Charleston, Sept. 8-10.
Also, LSU junior Madelene Sagstrom, who last year led the team in stroke average at 73.59 and was named first-team All-SEC, has been listed by Golf World magazine as one of the top 50 players to watch in 2014-15.
Sagstrom, from Sweden, narrowly missed on two occasions in the spring winning her first collegiate tournament, taking second at the Darius Rucker Intercollegiate and the LSU Tiger Golf Classic.
In the poll, defending NCAA champion USC starts its title defense as the No. 1 ranked team. The Trojans claimed 26 of the 29 available first-place votes. No. 2 in the poll is Alabama, while Duke claimed the No. 3 spot, having finished runner-up to USC at nationals last May. Rounding out the top five are UCLA and Arizona State, both of whom picked up first-place votes (the Bruins getting 1, the Sun Devils getting 2).
Seven different conferences had teams in the top 25, led by six from the Pac-12 and the SEC.
LSU is tied with Northwestern at the 22 spot.
Golf World/WGCA Coaches’ Poll
Sept. 2, 2013
Preseason Division I
Rank/Team (First-Place Votes)/Points
1. USC (26), 695
2. Alabama, 650
3. Duke , 640
4. UCLA (1), 637
5. Arizona State (2), 509
6. Oklahoma, 471
7. Arizona, 468
8. Arkansas, 462
9. Vanderbilt, 447
10. Florida, 429
11. Stanford, 376
12. Washington, 368
13. Purdue, 329
14. Oklahoma State, 308
15. North Carolina, 297
16. Virginia, 251
17. Georgia, 230
18. Tulane, 153
19. Texas, 146
20. N.C. State, 122
21. Michigan State, 119
t22. LSU, 113
t22. Northwestern, 113
24. Baylor, 109
25. UC Davis, 102
Also receiving votes: South Carolina, 100; Texas Tech, 95; Texas A&M, 92; Auburn, 74; Clemson, 61; Tennessee, 58; Fla. State, 54; Pepperdine, 39; California, 36; TCU, 26; SMU, 25; Ohio State, 22; Miss. State, 21; Oral Roberts, 21; Oregon, 17; Wake Forest, 15; Colorado, 14; New Mexico, 14; Notre Dame, 13; San Jose State, 12; Tulsa, 10; Michigan, 9; UCF, 9; Campbell, 8; Coastal Carolina, 8; Kent State, 7; Kentucky, 5; USF, 4; Louisville, 3; Denver, 2; Iowa State, 2; Penn State, 2; UC Irvine, 1; Miami (Fla.), 1.
First-place votes in parenthesis.
Polls conducted by the Women’s Golf Coaches Association. Voting closed Aug. 20, 2013