Women's golf team opens Region 8 tournament Saturday at Duran Golf Club

The Eastern Florida State College women's golf team will host the Region 8 State Tournament at Duran Golf Club beginning Saturday afternoon.

The tournament will feature the top three teams in the latest Golfstat NJCAA Division I poll and after Sunday's round two will advance to the NJCAA Division I National Championship Tournament in Ormond Beach May 10-13.

The Titans are third in the nation in the rankings and are coming off a fifth-place finish at the Dalton State Roadrunner Invitational earlier this week.

"The last two tournaments I think we have shot as high as we can shoot as opposed to as low as we can shoot," Eastern Florida State College women's golf coach Jamie Howell said. "We have just really struggled with scoring and haven't been able to get things done but we are doing everything we can to take care of our business."

Seminole State College enters the tournament as the No. 1 team in the nation and has won three tournaments this season. Daytona State College is the No. 2 team in the poll.

"Seminole State is incredibly good, they have shot some tremendous scores this season and Daytona State College is always going to be competitive," Howell said. "They are No. 1 and 2 for a reason. We can't do anything about what they do, we just have to take care of what we can control. We know Duran better than they do and we have to use that and play as well as we can."

Sophomore Elise Boccabella has been playing solid golf for the Titans all season and leads a talented Titans team into the postseason.

"Elise stepped up early this season for us, she and Delia (Timpy) were really a formidable 1-2 punch in the fall and then Valeria (Fort) has come on this spring, giving us that much more but losing Delia to the injury has really hurt us. Elise has really stepped up and we had a conversation this morning that as well as she has played, we don't think she has played her best golf yet. Wouldn't it be terrific to save the best for last and do something special this week."

The first round is scheduled to begin at 1:30 p.m. at Duran Golf Club with the final round slated for 1 p.m. on Sunday.