March 11, 2003

GAINESVILLE, Fla.

The No. 10 University of Tennessee Lady Vol golf squad closed out the 2003 SunTrust Lady Gator Invitational with the third-lowest third-round team total in program history after firing a 288 to finish with an 880 (289-303-288), but could not overcome the home-standing Florida Lady Gators who carded a third-round 286 to conclude the tourney with an 873 (293-294-286). Individually, Florida State's Kristin Tamulis took the tournament medal with a 215 (73-71-71) to hold off a late charge by UT's Violeta Retamoza (Aguascalientes, Mexico) (73-72-72=217) and Florida's Aimee Cho (73-74-70=217), who tied each other for second-place. Retamoza finished in the top-five for her fourth tourney out of the six she participated in this season.

"We really played well today." Head Coach Judi Pavon said. "We hit the ball great, but did not hit a lot of putts. We did everything we thought we needed to win, but Florida just played a great round."

Tai Perry (Unionville, Pa.) broke out of a recent slump by notching a pair of par-or-under rounds with a seventh-place 219 (69-80-70), while team captain Jessica Shepley (Oakville, Ontario, Canada) rounded out Tennessee's top-10 finishes with an eighth-place 220 (72-75-73) to extend her current streak of top-15 finishes to seven tournaments.

Junior Mary Jan Fernandez (Henderson, Nev.) rebounded from some recent rough performances to fire a 14th-place tying 224 (75-76-73), while freshman Golda Johansson (Lund, Sweden) shot a 241 (79-82-80) to tie for 69th-place.

UT continues its spring season when it travels to Greensboro, N.C. for the Bryan National Collegiate, March 28-30.

SunTrust Lady Gator Invitational
At University of Florida Golf Course (Gainesville, Fla.)

Team Scores:
1.	Florida	292-294-286=873
2.	TENNESSEE	289-303-288=880
3.	Tulane	289-307-300=896
4.	Florida State	295-300-302=897
5.	Michigan State	302-295-306=903
6.	Oklahoma	298-305-303=906
7.	South Florida	307-310-294=911
8.	Baylor	301-303-309=913
9.	Ohio State	308-304-305=917
10.	Mississippi	317-288-320=925
11.	Mississippi State	314-310-309=933
	North Carolina State	321-303-309=933
13.	Miami	326-303-311=940
14.	Kentucky	318-317-308=943
15.	Louisville	313-316-321=950
16.	Central Florida	327-322-310=959
Top Scorer (field=91):
1.	Kristin Tamulis, Florida State	73-71-71=215
UT Scores:
T2.	Violeta Retamoza	73-72-72=217
7.	Tai Perry	69-80-70=219
8.	Jessica Shepley	72-75-73=220
T14.	Mary Jan Fernandez	75-76-73=224
T69.	Golda Johansson	79-82-80=241