Judi Pavon Position: Head Golf Coach Experience: 10th season Alma Mater: Alabama '89

EMAIL: jpavon@utk.edu

VICE-PRESIDENT • NATIONAL GOLF COACHES ASSOCIATION

Over the last nine seasons, the Lady Volunteer golf program has been a force in the Southeastern Conference and on the national level under head coach Judi Pavon. During her career at Rocky Top, the current vice president of the National Golf Coaches Association has led the Big Orange to six NCAA Championship appearances, including four straight berths from 2004-07. The Helena, Mont., native holds the UT coaching records for head-to-head wins (1,040) and tournament titles (11).

Pavon's charges also have enjoyed individual success both on the golf course and in the classroom. Under Pavon, Lady Vols have been named All-Americans 10 times, garnered All-SEC status on 25 occasions and flourished in the classroom, bringing home 19 NGCA Academic All-America citations.

Overall it was another successful season for the Lady Vols under the direction of Pavon in 2008-09, which should come as no surprise. The former Alabama All-American and Montana high school star has an extensive golf background that includes a professional career, spanning from 1989-94, where she vied for individual honors in 50 events on the LPGA Tour. She competed in five LPGA major championships (1992 and 1997 LPGA Championships, 1991 and 1993 U.S. Open and the 1992 duMaurier Championship), and also captured the LPGA Southeast Section Championship title in 1997.

Last season, Nathalie Mansson had a spectacular freshman season, earning honorable mention All-America honors from Golfweek in addition to being named to the All-East Region Team, All-SEC Second Team and SEC All-Freshman Team. Her team-best 73.79 scoring average broke the Tennessee freshman record and is the sixth-best single-season scoring average in UT history.

Nicole Smith also wrapped up her career with some hardware, as she was named to the All-SEC Second Team as well as the NGCA Academic All-Scholar Team for the third time. Rebecca Watson joined Smith on the Academic All-Scholar Team, while both captured SEC Academic Honor Roll accolades along with teammates Ginny Brown, Diana Cantú, Emily Sills and Mansson.

UT had a slow start to the 2008-09 season, placing in the top-10 only once in four fall tournaments. After competing in two tournaments, the Big Orange plummeted to 72nd in the Golfstat head-to-head ratings. However, in one of the most impressive feats of coaching in women's golf last year, Pavon was able to right the ship in the spring and guide Tennessee to six consecutive top-eight finishes going into the national tournament and a final Golfstat rating of No. 20 - a 52 spot jump from the fall.

UT kicked off the spring with a runner-up placement at the Lady Puerto Rico Classic from Feb. 8-10 before closing the regular season with eighth-place finishes at the Arizona Wildcat, UCF Challenge and Bryan National Collegiate. In the postseason, the Lady Vols were even hotter, placing fourth at the SEC Championships and third at the NCAA East Regional to qualify for their fifth NCAA Tournament in six seasons, where the Big Orange placed 17th.

Pavon led UT to a record of 100-90, marking her seventh 100-win season in nine years. Under Pavon, Tennessee has continued its streaks of never finishing below .500 and never missing an NCAA Regional tournament.

Several Lady Vols had outstanding individual seasons in 2008-09, chief among them Mansson. The Stockholm, Sweden, native burst on to the collegiate scene by leading UT in six tournaments and accumulating six top-15 finishes en route to setting the UT freshman scoring record. She challenged for the lead at the NCAA East Regional before tying for third to lead UT to the national championship tournament.

Smith, a senior, came back from injury to cap her Rocky Top career with UT's fourth-lowest career scoring average (74.96). She was second on the team with a 75.47 stroke average and placed in the top 20 at three of her six tournaments.

Brown's third season in the Orange and White was a breakthrough to say the least. The junior carried the Lady Vols in the postseason by tying for sixth at the SEC Championship, 23rd at the East Regional and 16th at the NCAA Championships. In the process Brown transformed from a fringe top-five player to a near-All-American after coming into the season with an 80.8 career scoring average. She finished her junior campaign with a 75.64 scoring average.

In one of the highlights of the fall portion of the season, Brown and Spurlock fired opening-round 69s at the Tennessee-hosted Mercedes-Benz Collegiate Championships to give UT the day one lead at the tournament with the second-lowest team score in UT history (283).

Spurlock, who transferred from Belmont, improved her scoring average from 80.3 in 2007-08 to 77.93 in 2008-09.

Also performing well at the Mercedes-Benz was Watson, who notched career bests in place (t15th), round (72) and total (219) in leading the Lady Vols at a tournament for the first time in her career.

Cantú also had another great season for the Lady Vols. As a junior she was fourth on the team with a 76.47 stroke average and finished among the top four Lady Vols in nearly every tournament, including leading UT with a tied-for-23rd performance at the Mason Rudolph.

Though Tennessee didn't qualify to the 2008 NCAA Championships, the 2007-08 season was still a success, as Marci Turner completed a record-breaking career.

Turner earned her third straight All-SEC honor and left the UT program as one of the most accomplished players in the team's history. She became just the third Lady Vol in history to be a two-time National Golf Coaches Association (NGCA) All-American and three-time NGCA Academic All-American. As a junior she also won UT's first Edith Cummings Munson Award since 1994, an honor given to the All-American with the highest grade point average. She won three tournaments during the 2005-06 season (Cougar Classic, Dr. Donnis Thompson and NCAA East Regional) and wrapped up her career with a 74.20 average, the best four-year average in Lady Vol history. She currently participates on the FUTURES Tour and captured her first professional win at the Tennessee Open in July 2008.

Turner joined the ranks of four other Lady Vols currently competing professionally in either the LPGA or FUTURES Tours. Other Lady Vols who played for Pavon and moved on to the professional ranks include Violeta Retamoza, Angela Oh, Jessica Shepley and volunteer coach Young-A Yang, who all have had LPGA cards at some point in their professional careers. Oh, Shepley and Retamoza joined Turner on the FUTURES Tour for the season, while Yang competed in five tournaments on the LPGA Tour. Shepley and Oh both earned partial status LPGA cards in 2008.

The Lady Vols have been adding to the record books every season since Pavon took over the program in 2000.

During the 2006-07 season, Turner and Smith nabbed NGCA All-America and All-SEC honors, while Oh picked up second-team All-SEC accolades as well as Golfweek honorable mention All-America honors. The Lady Vols also won their home tournament, the Mercedes-Benz Collegiate Championships, for the first time ever as Oh's birdie on the playoff hole gave UT the victory over No. 1-ranked Georgia. UT finished with a 134-55-3 record and placed in the top eight in 11 of 12 tournaments while playing a program-high 36 rounds.

Numerous records were toppled in 2005-06, including the previous lowest season stroke average. After setting a new best in 2004-05, Pavon's squad eclipsed their 297.59 mark by 1.69 strokes when it ended the season shooting 295.9. The Orange and White collected three tournament wins and tied for the most wins in a season with the 1996-97 and 2002-03 squads, earning Pavon the 2006 SEC Coach of the Year award. At the prestigious Dr. Donnis Thompson Invite in Honolulu, Hawaii, Pavon's pupils made Lady Vol history by firing a school-record-setting 855 and a four-under-par 280 in round three at the par-71 Kaneohe Klipper Golf Course. Lady Vols grabbed first through fourth places, led by Turner with a then-career best total, 210. The number sits as the second-lowest total in UT history behind Turner's own 2006 SEC Championship total of 209. In the final round of the Dr. Donnis Thompson Invite, Turner set the standard for the lowest 18 holes in UT annals when she carded a seven-below-par 64. For its efforts, Tennessee received its first Golfweek National Team of the Week award, and Turner collected her second of three National Player of the Week honors.

During the 2004-05 season, Tennessee tied for sixth place at the NCAA Championships, marking the second top-10 showing at the event in Pavon's tenure. The squad fired a four-day total of 1187, which bested the school standard for the second straight campaign. UT had advanced to the championships by way of winning the NCAA West Regional with a three-day total of 887. Retamoza finished her junior campaign with the second-lowest single-season scoring average in program history and earned NGCA first-team All-America status. Other accolades bestowed upon Retamoza that year included being named both the SEC Player of the Year and Scholar-Athlete of the Year.

Shepley, Pavon's first recruit, wrapped up an outstanding career at Rocky Top with four top-10 finishes, including a third-place finish at the 2005 SEC Championships, to pace the Big Orange to a tie for fourth place.

Pavon guided the Lady Vols back to the NCAA Tournament for the first time since the 2000 campaign in 2003-04, where they finished 11th.Individual achievements continued as well, with Shepley earning honorable mention NGCA All-America laurels. She paced UT at the national championships with the best NCAA placement in school history, a 286 effort (75-73-71-69) en route to a fifth-place finish. Retamoza finished in a tie for first place at the SEC Championships and posted two other top-10 placements on the year. She was named to the first-team All-SEC squad for the second straight year.

UT completed the 2002-03 with three titles (Lady Kat Invitational, Derby and Lady Boilermaker Invitational) under its belt. Pavon also eclipsed Lori Brock's coaching record of five career team championships with her sixth win at the Lady Boilermaker. Retamoza took the college scene by storm, becoming UT's initial rookie to achieve second-team All-America status and was the Big Orange's third SEC Freshman of the Year recipient. Shepley joined Retamoza on the All-SEC First Team.

In her second year as head coach in 2001-02, Pavon maintained UT's national prominence, leading the team to a No. 8 showing in the Golfweek/Sagarin final ranking in 2001-02. The squad captured a tournament title for the second straight season, as the Lady Vols won the Alabama Capstone Intercollegiate. Yang became the first Lady Vol to earn All-America status all four years of her career in 2001-02 while Tina Schneeberger captured second-team All-SEC honors and Shepley received All-SEC honorable mention.

During her first year as head coach in 2000-01, Pavon enjoyed remarkable success. Her team achieved a final ranking of eighth in the MasterCard Coaches' poll and picked up wins at the Green Wave Women's Golf Classic and the Betsy Rawls Intercollegiate -- the program's first titles since 1997. The 2000-01 season featured great individual success as well. Yang earned a fifth-place finish at the NCAA Championships and she ended the campaign as the nation's fourth-ranked golfer, earning first-team All-America honors. The LPGA tabbed Pavon as the 2000 Southeast Section Coach of the Year for her work throughout the season.

Before becoming head coach in 2000, Pavon served as interim head coach for the last two tournaments of the 1999-2000 season, including a UT-best fifth-place showing at the 2000 NCAA Championships. She served as an assistant coach for the Lady Vols the previous three seasons (1997-2000).

Pavon (formerly Schneider) graduated magna cum laude from the University of Alabama in 1989. At The Capstone, she was an NGCA All-American as a senior and a three-time NGCA Academic All-American. The SEC also tabbed Pavon as a first-team all-conference selection in 1989. She claimed two individual titles and qualified as an individual for the NCAA Championships in 1989. Moreover, she was honored with the prestigious Paul "Bear" Bryant Student-Athlete of the Year award. As a team, the Crimson Tide finished ninth at the 1987 NCAA Championships, Alabama's first appearance ever. She led the club in stroke average her junior and senior seasons.

Pavon was the 1986 and 1989 Women's State Amateur Champion and was inducted into the Montana State Women's Golf Hall of Fame in 1996 and to the Helena Sports Hall of Fame in 2004. She also captured the 1984 and 1985 Montana State High School titles. She resides in Knoxville with her husband, Luis, a former UA golfer, and their two daughters, Alexa and Maya.