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Sept. 9, 2010
The USC women's golf team, ranked No. 1 in Golf World's 2010-2011 preseason poll, gets the new season underway at the 2010 Texas A&M Fall Preview, Sept. 13-15, at the Traditions G.C. in College Station, Texas.
The Women of Troy, under 15th-year head coach Andrea Gaston, earned the top billing heading into the season despite losing a pair of All-Americans from last year's NCAA second-place team, Belen Mozo and Jennifer Song.
The Fall Preview annually features many of the top teams in the land and this season's event is no different. The teams include Alabama, Arizona State (individuals only), Auburn Duke, Georgia, LSU, Michigan State, Pepperdine, Purdue, Stanford, Tennessee, Texas, Texas A&M, Tulane, UCLA, USC, Vanderbilt, Virginia and Wake Forest.
Play begins on the 6,271-yard, par 72 course at 8 a.m. (CST) Monday through Wednesday off the 1st and 10th holes.
Results will be at Golfstat.com.
Featured on this year's USC squad is three-time All-American senior Lizette Salas, part of USC's 2008 title team, as well as junior transfer Lisa McCloskey, an All-American at Pepperdine the last two years. McCloskey reached the final of the 108th Women's North & South Amateur Championship earlier this summer. Both players are among Golf World's "Top 10 Women's Golf Collegiate Players to Watch." (The other eight players on the list will be playing in the Fall Preview as well.)
Also back are junior Inah Park and sophomore Cyna Rodriguez, both of whom played big roles during USC's 2010 NCAA Championships title chase.
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Joining McCloskey as newcomers to the squad are talented freshmen Rachel Morris and Sophia Popov. Morris recently won the Pacific Northwest Amateur in Clarkston, Wash., while Popov, from Germany, won the 2010 International European Ladies Amateur Championship.
Including the 2003 and 2008 NCAA titles, USC has finished in the NCAA Championships' top 4 in six of the past eight years. In fact, the Trojans, who finished second in 2010 (by one stroke) and third in 2009, have reached the NCAA Championships 13 times in a row under Gaston and have been in the top 7 10 times.
