No. 38 women's golf wraps season at NCAA regional

The No. 38 UCF Knights women’s golf team capped a season that saw the program take a clear step in the right direction at the NCAA East Regional on Saturday with the conclusion of play.

The Knights finished tied for 14th in the three-round regional at 907 (43). The east regional was held in State College, Penn., and hosted 24 teams. Only the top eight teams advance to the NCAA Championship.

Individually, UCF’s Kaitlyn Price tied for 83rd at 232 (16), while both Katie Mitchell and Valentina Fontaine tied for 93rd at 245 (+19).

The at-large bid to the regional marked the Knights’ first appearance in an NCAA Regional since 2009. This season UCF won two team tournaments and finished second in April’s Conference USA Championship.

Schneider receives award, men’s golf set for regional play
UCF senior golfer Brad Schneider was awarded the David Toms Award last Tuesday. The award is presented by the Golf Coaches Association of America and is given to the men’s collegiate golfer who has overcome adversity to achieve excellence.

Schneider fractured his right femur in 2006 while playing football with friends. The resulting recovery involved nine surgeries and four months of being confined to a hospital bed. Schneider had to be assisted to walk for six months.

Remarkably, Schneider learned to walk again and arrived at UCF in fall of 2007 to join the Knights men’s golf team, redshirting his freshman year while his rehabilitation continued. Following his recovery, Schneider has been a leader on a team that has won three Conference USA championships and advanced to one NCAA Championship. Schneider has five top-10 finishes so far in his senior season and was named to the 2011-2012 All C-USA First Team.

“It is a really cool award,” Schneider said in a release. “The injury was a hard thing to go through. I have been lucky to play golf at a competitive level. It is really nice to be honored this way.”

Schneider and the rest of his teammates are focused on the upcoming NCAA Regionals in Stanford, Calif., set to start on Thursday. The No. 22 Knights received an at-large bid to compete in the NCAA tournament after coming up just a few strokes short of a fourth-consecutive C-USA title.