BUIES CREEK, N.C. – For the 25th time in 30 seasons, Campbell University is heading to post-season play in women's golf.  The Big South Conference champion received an automatic berth to play May 8-10 in the NCAA Regional at Lonnie Poole Golf Course in Raleigh, N.C.
 
Ranked No. 76, the Camels are one of 72 teams nationally to earn a post-season bid and are seeded 11th in the 12-team Raleigh Regional.  The top five teams (and top individual from non-qualifying teams) from each of six regional sites will advance to the NCAA Championship May 19-24 at Grayhawk Golf Club (Raptor Course) in Scottsdale, Ariz. 
 
The other five regional sites are University of Georgia Golf Course (Athens, Ga.), PGA National Resort (Palm Beach Gardens, Fla.), Palouse Ridge Golf Club (Pullman, Wash.), TPC San Antonio (San Antonio, Texas) and The Club at Chatham Hills (Westfield, Ind.).

The post-season berth is the 11th-straight for Coach John Crooks' team. 
 
"Everybody's going to go play for a national championship. Rankings are a wonderful thing on paper.  I counted 12 teams that are going to the NCAAs this year that we've beaten, and some of them more than once, so we're going to be on neutral ground. Of course, North Carolina State's going to have a little bit of an advantage, but we'll just go play and see what happens," said Crooks, whose team won its 19th league title in his 32 years in charge of the program. "Our ladies are talented, and I've seen each of them play at a level to where we would advance.  So, we've got an opportunity."
 
Including second-ranked Wake Forest, the Raleigh Regional features four teams ranked among the nation's top 25, and five more in the top 50, including No. 46 and host NC State.
 
Campbell earned the Big South's automatic berth in the NCAA regionals on the strength of a five-shot victory in the league stroke play championship followed by match play wins on Apr. 15 over Charleston Southern and High Point to claim a seventh-straight title.  The victory was the third of the season for the Camels, who also won the Golfweek Fall Challenge and Sea Best Intercollegiate in addition to the Big South title.
 
The Lonnie Poole Golf Course (par 72, 6324 yards), which opened in 2009, is an Arnold Palmer Signature tract and features great variety, with low lying areas as well as fairways with rolling hills. Several areas of the course provide views of downtown Raleigh as well as the NC State campus.  The course features three types of character - flat, wetlands, and trees – and includes eight par four holes, five par five layouts and five par three holes.  Campbell competed in the 2015 NCAA Raleigh Regional and advanced to the NCAA Championship from the site.
 
"At Lonnie Poole, we're not going to find something that's new. Our men have played there twice this year; (assistant) Coach (Ashley) Sease and (assistant) Coach (Matt) Moot know the course, and I've seen it a number of times," said Crooks, who has guided his women's team to either a first- or second-place finish in the league tournament 29 times (including 19 titles) in 31 opportunities. "There's a lot more changes in elevation than you can imagine.  Mr. Palmer designed the greens first, then the hole. There are times when you have to be on a certain side of a fairway to approach a pin.  You might be on one side of a fairway today, and that's the wrong side tomorrow.  We'll have fast greens, there'll be a lot of undulation."
 
Crooks and the Camels have fond memories of the Lonnie Poole layout during postseason play.  The 2015 Campbell women finished sixth at the site to earn a second-straight NCAA Championship berth.  In 2018, Pontus Nyholm tied for fifth and won a playoff to advance to the NCAA men's finals from Lonnie Poole.
 
Now in his 33rd year in charge of the Campbell men's golf program and 32nd as head coach of the CU women, John Crooks has been named league coach of the year 23 times in his tenure.  His teams have combined to earn 35 NCAA post-season trips, including 11 in a row for the women.  His teams have won 160 tournaments and with 99 career tournament titles, Crooks trails only Dan Brooks of Duke (140) on the all-time coaching victories list among Division I women's coaches.  He has guided his teams to 27 league titles, including 19 on the women's side and eight in men's competition.
 
Isabella Hahne was named 2023 Big South freshman of the year, to the all-conference First Team, all-freshman team, and all-championship team.  She ranked second among Big South players in stroke average and posted seven top-20 finishes, including three top-10s.  A native of Kungsbacka, Sweden, she placed T5 (75-76-74—225) at Big South Championship and went 2-0 in match play.  Hahne finished T1st (70-76-69—215) to lead Campbell to the team title at the Sea Best Intercollegiate at San Jose CC.  She also placed T3 at Olde Stone Intercollegiate.  Hahne played par, or better, golf in seven rounds.  She was a four-time Big South freshman of the week, who was also named golfer of the week Feb. 16.
 
Fifth-year senior Tomita Arejola will make her third regional appearance for the Camels.  A native of Quezon City, Philippines, Arejola was named to the 2023 Big South all-conference second team, and all-championship team after finishing as runner-up in Big South Conference Championship stroke play (76-76-68—220).  She produced the deciding point in the Big South match play final on the 18th hole.  Arejola has compiled three top-10s in nine events this season and posted a 74.12 scoring average (3rd in the Big South).  She was runner-up at the season-opening Golfweek Fall Invitational (70-70-65—205, -8), where she shot a collegiate low 65 (-6) in the final round. Arejola was the 2022 Big South Scholar-Athlete of the Year and 2nd-team all-conference choice.  She also qualified for the 2021 and 2022 US Women's Amateur championships.  She played her first two seasons at Fairleigh Dickinson, where she was named Northeast Conference Golfer and Freshman of the Year in 2019.
Tomita Arejola NCAA Regional History
2019 NCAA Norman Regional 85-86-80—251 (93) #
2021 NCAA Columbus Regional 74-81-76—231 (T63)
2022 NCAA Stillwater Regional 80-81-82—243 (53)
#at FDU
 
Senior Patricia Garre Munoz was named to the 2023 Big South all-conference first team.  A native of Murcia, Spain, Garre Munoz produced her sixth career top-10 finish with a 9th-place performance at the Big South Championship stroke play, then went on to go 2-0 in match play.  Her season stroke average of 74.95 is seventh-best in the league.  Garre Munoz finished with a 3-0 record in Big South match play finals over the last three years, including the deciding points 2022 and 2021.  She notched a season-best 8th-place finish at the Olde Stone Intercollegiate.  Garre Munoz was a second-team all-conference choice in 2022 and all-freshman team member in 2021.
Patricia Garre Munoz NCAA Regional History
2021 NCAA Columbus Regional 74-75-79—228 (T43)
2022 NCAA Stillwater Regional 89-81-83—253 (57)
 
Junior Sanna Lundmark was named the 2023 Big South scholar-athlete of the year, all-conference second team, and to the all-academic team.  A resident of Skellefea, Sweden, Lundmark ranks 6th among Big South stroke average leaders (74.81) while posting a 3.951 GPA as a business management major.  She was named 2nd team all-conference for the 2nd-straight year.  Lundmark posted four top-20 finishes, including two top-10s in '22-23.  She placed 6th at The Southern, where she was CU's low individual and was T23 in the 2023 Big South Championship stroke play before winning her semifinal match 7&6 to help the Camels capture the team title.
Sanna Lundmark NCAA Regional History
2022 NCAA Stillwater Regional 80-81-78—239 (52)
 
Taylah Ellems of Canberra, Australia was named to the 2023 Big South all-freshman team.  She has competed in eight events and produced a 77.27 scoring average.  Ellems played in two of three stroke play rounds and both match play contests at the Big South Championship.  She finished T32nd in her collegiate debut (69-74-76—219) at the Golfweek Fall Challenge, where she helped Campbell win the team title and posted her best score of the season in the opening round.  She was also in the lineup for CU wins at the Sea Best Intercollegiate at San Jose in addition to the Big South Championship.
 
NCAA Raleigh Regional
Raleigh, N.C. / Lonnie Poole Golf Course
May 8-110, 2023 / Par 72, 6324 yards
 
Participating Teams (Automatic Qualifiers/Golfstat Ranking): 1. Wake Forest (2), 2. Arizona State (11), 3. Florida State (14), 4. Florida (21), 5. Arizona (26), 6. North Texas (Conference USA/35), 7. TCU (38), 8. NC State (46), 9. Purdue (50), 10. Nebraska (56), 11. Campbell (Big South/76), 12. Richmond (Patriot League/150).
 
Individuals: 1. Dorota Zalewska, Chattanooga, 2. Kendall Turner, James Madison, 3. Mallory Fobes, UNCW, 4. Morgan Ketchum, Virginia Tech, 5. Becca DiNunzio, Virginia Tech, 6. Sarah Kahn, High Point (Big South).