The Fairleigh Dickinson University athletic department has expanded to 19 sports with the addition of the women's golf team. The first match of the season and the program will be on Sept. 23-24 in Princeton, NJ at the Princeton Invitational.

“We are very excited to add women's golf,” said Director of Athletics David Langford. “It will help us to improve the competitive opportunities for women and will give us more opportunities to be more competitive in the Northeast Conference Commissioner's cup.”

“Head Coach Michelle Melia brought in a very solid recruiting class and we know within a few years it will be a very successful program.”

“This is an exciting time for us, building a program from the ground up,” said Melia, who became the Head Men's Golf Coach in March of 2006.  “This is a great opportunity for women's golf in the Northeast, to have an additional program, as well as for prospective female athletes to have another sport for them to compete at a Division I level. There haven't really been a lot of opportunities, and now other budding programs in the area are excited for the addition because they have another place to compete against and grow with. I believe in a short period of time, we will do very well in the Northeast Conference, it won't take long.”

The first Northeast Conference Women's Golf Championship was held in 1998. Fairleigh Dickinson marks the ninth women's program in the NEC: Central Connecticut State, Long Island, Monmouth, Mount St. Mary's, Robert Morris, Sacred Heart, St. Francis (PA) and Wagner.

The Knights are the fourth Division I women's golf team in the state after Rutgers, Princeton and Monmouth. There were only four teams competing in the Northeast when women's golf began in 1977.