April 20, 2006

AUBURN - Auburn senior Maria Martinez has been named the SEC Women's Golfer of the Year, the league office announced Thursday afternoon. Martinez led the conference all season and finished league play with an SEC individual and team title in 2006.

The All-SEC teams were also announced with Martinez landing on the first team and junior Nicole Hage and sophomore Margaret Shirley making the second team.

"This is such a great honor for Maria," Auburn head coach Kim Evans said. "She has led the conference all season and really finished it off strong winning at SECs. She is a very determined young lady and all of her hard work and dedication have paid off. We are all very excited and proud of her."

Martinez held a stroke average of 71.59 for the season and was named the SEC Golfer of the Week and Golfweek Player of the Week numerous times throughout the season. The Maracaibo, Venezuela, native is the sixth SEC Player of the Year from Auburn and joins teammate Nicole Hage, a 2004 Co-SEC Player of the Year, as recent honorees.

Hage finished the season second for the Tigers with a 74.07 stroke average for the year, followed by Shirley, at 74.85. Shirley, a Roswell, Ga., native, had the best performance of her career at the SEC Championship, finishing third overall.

Other honorees are Tennessee head coach Judi Pavon, named the SEC Coach of the Year, Whitney Simons of South Carolina as the SEC Scholar-Athlete of the Year and Taylor Leon of Georgia as the SEC Freshman of the Year.

Auburn will compete in the Lady Buckeye Invitational April 22-23 in Columbus, Ohio, and will find out on May 1 where the team will compete for the NCAA Regional title.