FRESNO - Lemoore High School's Hillary Billingsley has singed a letter of intent to play golf for Fresno State, the university announced Thursday.

"Hillary has a very solid, balanced golf swing and her game is only going to improve and reach new levels as she enters college," said coach Angie Cates-Moore. "She's very competitive and an all-around athlete. She is ready to take it to the next level. Hillary has so much talent and we expect her to see some significant playing time during her freshman year."

Billingsley was a two-time West Yosemite League champion for the Tigers. She was the first Lemoore girl to qualify for the CIF Southern California championships after finishing 14th in the Central Section tournament earlier this month.

Billingsley also excelled off the green earning an academic excellence award in 2009.

Fresno State also announced the that Christine Uhalde, from Modesto's Johansen High, has signed a letter of intent.

Uhalde brings with her a long list of accolades. She was named the Most Valuable Player during her freshman and junior years and she was an all-district golfer in 2006, 2007 and 2008. The Modesto Bee named Uhalde their Athlete of the Year in 2009 and NCGA Junior Golf ranked her ninth out of 211 golfers last season.

"Christine (Uhalde) has a lot of talent and a tremendous passion to compete," said Cates-Moore. "Her transition from high school to the collegiate competition should be very smooth. She's going to be a tremendous asset to our team. We will be losing four seniors at the end of this year and we believe Christine will step into the line up and make an immediate impact. Christine is a great ball striker and is very capable of putting up low numbers."

Billingsley and Uhalde join Taylor Wilkinson of Reedley and Alison Timlin of Ottawa, Canada as the newest members of the team.

(Nov. 20, 2009)