July 31, 2002

DUBLIN, OHIO - Duke University rising junior Virada Nirapathpongporn will participate in the LPGA Wendy's Championship this week at Tarton Fields Golf Club in Dublin, Ohio. The tournament will take place from August 1-4. The Wendy's Championship will mark the second LPGA tournament Nirapathpongporn has played in this summer as the Bangkok, Thailand native participated in the U.S. Open in early July.

Earlier this summer, Nirapathpongporn captured in the Women's Eastern Golf Association Tournament title. She fired rounds of 69, 68 and 73 for a total of 210 to pick up the victory.

Nirapathpongporn is coming off of a record-setting sophomore season at Duke. Her performance at the 2002 NCAA Championship won amazing as she led the Blue Devils to a second NCAA Championship and won the individual title also. She picked up first team All-America accolades for the second consecutive year, after guiding Duke to eight tournament victories on the season. The 2002 ACC Player of the Year registered the third-best season stroke average in school history with a 73.06 mark and posted a NCAA Championship record tying four-day total of 279 to claim individual medallist honors at the championship.

Quickly rewriting the Duke record books, Nirapathpongporn now owns the top 18 (65), 36 (137), 54 (207) and 72-hole (279) scores in Blue Devil history. She has notched 13 top 10 finishes in two seasons along with five victories. For her efforts last season, Nirapathpongporn became the third Duke women's athlete to receive the Honda Award as Vanessa Webb received the tennis award in 1999 and Candy Hannemann won the golf award in 2001.

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