INDIANAPOLIS (April 27. 2017) -- FIU senior Camila Serrano (Bogota, Colombia) has earned an individual spot into the NCAA Division I Women's Golf Regionals and is headed to Columbus, Ohio, to compete May 8-10. The selection, by the NCAA Division I Women's Golf Committee, was announced on Golf Channel Thursday. The Regional will be contested at the OSU Golf Club-Scarlet Course, hosted by The Ohio State University. The individuals will tee off each day at 8:15 a.m. in a threesome, from either the first or tenth tee, depending on their order of finish each day relative to one another. The initial pairings will be posted to the NCAA Women's Golf Championship website by Monday, May 1.
 
The Conference USA Women's Golfer of the Year, Serrano was the highest-ranked player in C-USA by Golfstat after the Conference Championships, and the only one ranked among the Top 200 players in Division I, finishing the season ranked 81^st in women's golf. She was 658-85 in 10 tournaments this season. Serrano posted four finishes in the top five at 10 tournaments for the season, three more times in the top 10, including a tie for ninth at the C-USA Championships last week. Her average finish was in the 89^th percentile, finishing with a stroke average of 72.57, which was the best of her career by more than a stroke.
 
Serrano's senior season lowered her career average by more than half a stroke over 101 tournament rounds. She also earned First-Team All-C-USA honors for her outstanding season. She is a four-time all-conference selection and the third-straight Golfer of the Year from FIU. Serrano took home a league-best four Golfer of the Week honors this season and was the 2014 C-USA Women's Golf Freshman of the Year.

"Cami has a chance to compete and advance," said FIU Head Coach Joe Vogel. "She has shown she is capable of putting it together. She finished in the top 10 in seven of our 10 events. She kept good focus and good game plan each time out."
 
Four regionals will feature 18 teams and six individuals competing for spots into the NCAA Championships. The top six teams and three individuals not on those teams will advance to the National Championships, which will take place May 19-24 in Sugar Grove, Illinois, at Rich Harvest Farms.
 
Serrano's selection makes it three individual regionals in a row for FIU Golf, as graduate Meghan MacLaren qualified for the previous two NCAA Regionals. Serrano is the sixth FIU golfer to qualify as an individual to the NCAA Regionals. Michelle Simpson, in 2000, was the last individual to play at the OSU Golf Club-Scarlet Course at a regional.
 
Florida is the top seed at this regional, and Serrano will also be joined by Conference USA Champion Old Dominion in Columbus. Loy Hee Ying of East Tennessee, Michaela Fletcher of Memphis, Emma Albrecht of Notre Dame, Kate Smith of Nebraska and Emie Peronnin of Minnesota-Twin Cities are the other individuals at the Columbus Regional.
 
The other regionals, competing on the same days, are in Athens, Georgia, Lubbock, Texas, and Albuquerque, New Mexico.

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About FIU Athletics: FIU Athletics is home to more than 400 student-athletes in 18 different sports. Athletic events are played in seven different venues on FIU's campuses (Modesto A. Maidique and Biscayne Bay), including Lime Court at FIU Arena and at Riccardo Silva Stadium.
 
About FIU: Florida International University is classified by Carnegie as a "R1: Doctoral Universities - Highest Research Activity" and recognized as a Carnegie Community Engaged university. It is a public research university with colleges and schools that offers bachelor's, master's and doctoral programs in fields such as business, engineering, computer science, international relations, architecture, law and medicine. As one of South Florida's anchor institutions, FIU contributes almost $9 billion each year to the local economy and is ranked second in Florida in Forbes Magazine's "America's Best Employers" list. FIU graduates are consistently among the highest paid college graduates in Florida and are among the leaders of public and private organizations throughout South Florida. FIU is Worlds Ahead in finding solutions to the most challenging problems of our time. FIU emphasizes research as a major component of its mission with multiple state-of-the-art research facilities including the Wall of Wind Research and Testing Facility, FIU's Medina Aquarius Program and the Advanced Materials Engineering Research Institute.  FIU has awarded more than 220,000 degrees and enrolls more than 54,000 students in two campuses and centers including FIU Downtown on Brickell, FIU@I-75, the Miami Beach Urban Studios, and Tianjin, China. FIU also supports artistic and cultural engagement through its three museums: Patricia & Phillip Frost Art Museum, the Wolfsonian-FIU, and the Jewish Museum of Florida-FIU. FIU is a member of Conference USA and more than 400 student-athletes participating in 18 sports. For more information about FIU, visit http://www.fiu.edu/.