WEST LAFAYETTE, Ind. — Looking to advance to the NCAA Championships for the fifth time in seven seasons, the LSU women’s golf team travels to West Lafayette, Ind., for the 21-team NCAA Central Regional from Thursday to Saturday at the Birck Boilermaker Golf Complex.
The top eight teams from each of three regional sites, along with the top two individuals who are not on the top eight teams, will advance to the 24-team NCAA Division I Women’s National Championships at the Mission Inn Resort in Howey-in-the-Hills, Fla., May 22-25. The Lady Tigers are trying to make an LSU women’s golf record fourth-straight regional appearance in the NCAA Championships.
“This tournament is a little different than the ones we play all year,” said LSU Coach Karen Bahnsen. “You go in with the same mind set of trying to win and defeat the field, but if you don’t and make the top eight that can still be good in this case. Advancing to the next round is the important thing.”
The Lady Tigers have done that four of the past six years as this marks their seventh-consecutive regional bid. LSU’s best regional finish came in 1998 and 1999 as LSU finished third behind Georgia in the East Regional at Durham, N.C., and third behind the Bulldogs in 1999 at the University Club of South Carolina.
Eight of the teams in the Central Regional are ranked in the latest Golf World coaches poll: New Mexico State (8), Texas (9), LSU (10), Tulsa (12), Oklahoma State (13), Oklahoma (17), Purdue (19) and Kent State (25). Joining the Tigers from the SEC are Alabama and Florida and the rest of the field is made up of Oral Roberts, Princeton, California, Central Florida, Baylor, San Francisco, Nebraska, Texas A&M, Texas Tech, Minnesota and Idaho.
LSU will go with Isabel Dornellas (freshman, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil), Meredith Duncan (junior, Shreveport, La.), Katy Harris (senior, South Bend, Ind.), Lindy Hitdlebaugh (junior, Gretna, La.) and Lesley McClurg (senior, Redmond, Wash.).
Harris and Duncan earned First-Team All-SEC honors, while putting together a combined 14 top-10 finishes. Harris enters the regionals ranked No. 4 in the country in the College Golf Foundation rankings with a school-record stroke average of 72.92. In her past six rounds, she shot 9-under par and had three runner-up finishes, including her last start in the conference tournament. Duncan comes in averaging 74.04 strokes per round, third best at LSU for a single season.
“We obviously need Katy and Meredith to have big tournaments,” said Bahnsen. “But in this type of tournaments, you need everyone to step up. It is going to be important to get off to a strong start and be in position early to qualify and then sustain that the rest of the week.”
The 54-hole event runs Thursday through Saturday with 18 holes each day. The East Regional will be played at Finley Golf Course in Chapel Hill, N.C., while the West Regional is at Trysting Tree Golf Course in Corvallis, Ore.
LSU will tee off in the morning wave on Thursday and the afternoon wave on Friday. Pairings for the final day will be determined by the tournament standings.