DENTON – Lauren Cox added to her historic junior season on Wednesday afternoon when the junior received an individual bid to the NCAA tournament and will be competing in the Norman Regional on May 6-8.
 
Cox is just the second player in program history to receive an NCAA bid, matching Randi Gauthier, who earned back-to-back bids, competing in the Central Regional in East Lansing, Michigan, in 2002, and the Central Regional in Lincoln, Nebraska, in 2003.
 
"I am thrilled to see Lauren receive an at-large bid to the NCAAs," UNT coach Michael Akers said. "She has played great this year against very good competition. This bid proves we are doing the right thing by scheduling the best possible tournaments. You cannot earn the ranking it takes to get bids if you do not play a competitive schedule. I anticipate our team to have the depth next year to be in the position to receive a bid."
 
Six teams and the top three individuals, not from an advancing team, from each of the four regionals will advance to the national championships at The Blessings Golf Club in Fayetteville, Arkansas, on May 17-22. Cox is one of six individuals going to Norman, where she'll be joined by Michaela Fletcher (Memphis), Brigitte Dunne (SMU), Lianna Bailey (Oklahoma State), Han-Hsuan Yu (Oklahoma State) and Lorena Tseng (Tulsa).
 
"I'm very excited to keep playing and to continue my season," Cox said. "I'm excited to compete against the best of the best. I feel like we have been all semester long, so I'm ready for it. You play the golf course and (Akers) and (assistant coach) Krista (Puisite) have both been to the course. We're going to prepare for it and put three good rounds together."
 
Aside from joining Gauthier in receiving a bid, Cox has another tie to Gauthier this year – she is set to break her 16-year-old program record for lowest single-season scoring average. Gauthier had an average of 74.60 in 2002-03, and with the NCAA tournament left to play for Cox this year, she has a 73.46 average through nine tournaments.
 
In those nine starts, the first-team All-Conference USA selection has seven top-20 finishes, including three top-10 showings. Her two outliers were a tied for 26th and tied for 28th. Her last two starts, The Bruzzy Invitational and the Conference USA Championship, saw her finish tied for eighth and tied for sixth, respectively. In Round 2 of The Bruzzy, she tied a 30-year-old program record for lowest round when she fired a 66. She has carded nine rounds under par this year and four sub-70 rounds.
 
"I look forward to getting back to regionals," Akers said. "I haven't been since 2016, and it is the place to be in May. I feel Lauren is playing well enough to set her sights on advancing to nationals."
 
Cox knows the task at hand in the coming weeks, but she said Wednesday should be a sign of things to come for the entire program, which has seen a big climb in the rankings in the three years since Akers arrived.
 
"I think we should be going to regionals every year," Cox said. "It shouldn't be a question. We definitely can do it. I think this watch party is exciting for next year. We'll all be here watching for our name on the board as a team."