BATON ROUGE – The LSU women’s golf team, ranked sixth in the National Golf Coaches Association poll and seventh in the latest GolfStat performance rankings, has received an invitational to the NCAA West Regional tournament as the second seed slated for Erie, Colo., May 10-12.
The 54-hole tournament will be conducted over the Colorado National Golf Club with the University of Colorado the host team. The Buffaloes will be the fourth seed in the regional.
This marks the 18th time in the 20 years of NCAA regional competition that the Lady Tigers have advanced to the NCAA field of now 72 teams. Only in 1994 and 2003 did LSU not advance to NCAA regional play.
The top eight teams in each of the three regional competitions (East, Central, West) will advance to the NCAA Division I Women’s Golf Championships, May 22-25, at the Legends Club of Vanderbilt in Franklin, Tenn. LSU has advanced from regional play nine times, including two of the last three years, and 11 times overall since the program began in the 1979-80 school year.
Last year, the Lady Tigers had their best ever NCAA finish, taking third place just eight shots behind winner UCLA. Then freshman Austin Ernst shot two rounds of 6-under 66 in the 72-hole event to finish at 7-under par 281 to become the first LSU women’s golfer in history to win the individual national championship.
Last season, LSU finished second behind UCLA in the Central Regional at the Warren Golf Course in South Bend, Ind., easily advancing to the national championship.
UCLA and LSU will be paired again this year with the defending champs the No. 1 seed in the West Regional ahead of LSU with North Carolina the third seed. After Colorado, is Pac-12 champion California, with Baylor sixth, West Coast Conference champion Pepperdine seventh and Big West champ UC Davis rounding out the top eight seeds in the 24-team field.
“I had tried to map things out and thought we would be put in the West Region,” said LSU Coach Karen Bahnsen after the Monday night NCAA.com selection show. “We are excited about it. I am checking the weather, but it will be fine as long as we don’t have to deal with snowflakes. I am very pleased. It’s a very strong field. There are a lot of good quality teams. We just need to get ready and play three good rounds of golf and move on to nationals.”
This will be the third time in four years that LSU has been placed in the West Regional.
In all 72 teams were selected to the three regionals along with 16 individuals whose teams did not advance. A total of 45 teams that did not win conference tournaments were selected at large.
Eleven of the 12 SEC teams advanced to regional play and Tulane from Conference USA was named as the 12th seed in the East Regional to be held at the Penn State Golf Course. The Central Regional will be held over the Scarlet Course in Columbus, Ohio.
West Regional Teams:
Colorado National Golf Club
Erie, Colo.
(Automatic qualifiers with conference in parenthesis)
Teams:
1. UCLA
2. LSU
3. North Carolina
4. Colorado
5. California (Pac-12 Conference)
6. Baylor
7. Pepperdine (West Coast Conference)
8. UC Davis (Big West Conference)
9. Oklahoma (Big 12 Conference)
10. Texas Tech
11. Tulsa (Conference USA)
12. TCU (Mountain West Conference)
13. Iowa St.
14. Stanford
15. Denver (Sun Belt Conference)
16. UNLV
17. New Mexico
18. Oregon St.
19. Illinois
20. Kennesaw St. (Atlantic Sun Conference)
21. San Jose St. (Western Atlantic Conference)
22. Missouri St. (Missouri Valley Conference)
23. Northern Colo. (Big Sky Conference)
24. Jackson St. (Southwestern Athletic Conference)
Individuals:
1. Kayla Mortellaro, Idaho
2. Ally McDonald, Mississippi St.
3. Amy Anderson, North Dakota St.
4. Maggie Yuan, BYU
5. Brianna Espinoza, Colorado St.
6. Demi Mak, New Mexico St.
Central Regional
Scarlet Course
Columbus, Ohio
Teams:
1. Southern California
2. Auburn (Southeastern Conference)
3. Georgia
4. Vanderbilt
5. Tennessee
6. Ohio St.
7. Oregon
8. North Carolina St.
9. Virginia
10. Florida St.
11. Purdue
12. Arkansas
13. Ole Miss
14. Kentucky
15. Texas St.
16. South Fla. (Big East Conference)
17. Notre Dame
18. UTSA (Southland Conference)
19. East Carolina
20. Michigan
21. UNC Wilmington (Colonial Athletic Association)
22. Harvard (The Ivy League)
23. Butler (Horizon League)
24. Siena (Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference)
Individuals:
1. Madeleine Shiels, Nebraska
2. Alex Buelow, Stetson
3. Rika Park, Miami (FL)
4. Brittany Henderson, Costal Caro.
5. Leticia Ras-Anderica, Miami (FL)
6. Gabriella Wahl, East Tenn. St.
East Regional
Penn State Blue Course
State College, Pa.
Teams
1. Alabama
2. Arizona St.
3. Duke (Atlantic Coast Conference)
4. Texas A&M
5. Florida
6. Arizona
7. Oklahoma St.
8. South Carolina
9. Michigan St. (Big Ten Conference)
10. Washington
11. Texas
12. Tulane
13. UCF
14. Wake Forest
15. Northwestern
16. San Diego St.
17. Kent St. (Mid-American Conference)
18. Maryland
19. Augusta St.
20. Campbell (Big South Conference)
21. Chattanooga (Southern Conference)
22. Oral Roberts (The Summit League)
23. Jacksonville St. (Ohio Valley Conference)
24. LIU Brooklyn (Northeast Conference)
Individuals:
1. Fanny Cnops, UNC-Greensboro
2. Charlotte Lorentzen, Georgia St.
3. Kelly Shon, Princeton
4. Katie Mundy, FIU
5. Michelle Piyapattra, Columbia
6. Laura Wearn, Furman