May 27, 2002

CHICAGO, Ill. ¡V The National Golf Coaches association recently announced the year-end student-athlete and coaches awards for Division I Women¡¦s College Golf and Wake Forest¡¦s own Barcelona native, junior Nuria Clau earned All-American honorable mention honors. Winners were recognized on Friday, May 24 at the NGCA Awards Banquet held during the NCAA Women¡¦s Golf Championship in Auburn, Wash.

This is Clau¡¦s first time to be named an All-American and the 11th time that a Deacon has earned this national honor, all under the tutelage of head coach Dianne Dailey. Most recently 2001 graduate Marta Prieto was voted to the All-America second team last year. Qualifications to become an All-American include: NCAA qualifying averages, tournament wins and average place of finish, quality of field in tournaments and an NCAA Medalist.

¡§Nuria had an outstanding year,¡¨ said Dailey. ¡§She worked hard on the golf course and succeeded in the classroom as well. She had one of the highest GPAs in all of athletics. She earned it.¡¨

Not only did Clau earn All-America honors for the first time, she earned Academic All-America honors for the second year in a row. With a 3.72 GPA and a 4.0 GPA this past semester, Clau has gained recognition off the course as well. For an individual to be considered for this honor they must show good character, leadership qualities and have played in 2/3 of their tournaments. This year the bar was raised from a 3.4 GPA to a 3.5 GPA to qualify.

Clau¡¦s accolades most recently include being named to the 2002 CoSIDA/Verizon Academic All-District III Women¡¦s At-Large second team. She was also nominated this season for the 2002 Socrates Award presented by Sporting News and March of Dimes¡¦ National Awards. The Award is presented annually to the college athlete who best exemplifies excellence in athletics and academics. In addition, she earned All-ACC honors for her junior year campaign. Clau was named an NCGA Academic All-American, named to the Division I All-Scholar Team and earned the Arthur Ashe, Jr. Sport Scholar Award in 2001.

She ended the 2001-02 season with a 73.88 stroke average and has compiled five top 10 and two top 20 finishes this season, including a tie for second place at the ACC Championships in Clemmons, N.C. The 20th-ranked Demon Deacon most recently turned out a tie for 31st place at the NCAA Championship in Auburn, Wash.

For more information on NGCA awards go to www.ngca.com.