BATON ROUGE — The eighth-ranked LSU women’s golf team will go West in an attempt to make its third Division I Women’s Golf Championship in the last four years as the Lady Tigers were announced as part of the field for the NCAA West Women’s Golf Regional tournament, May 7-9 at the ASU Karsten Golf Course in Tempe, Ariz.
A total of 21 teams and three individuals were selected at each of three sites ? Mark Bostick Golf Course in Gainesville, Fla. (East Regional); Scarlet Golf Course in Columbus, Ohio (Central Regional); and the ASU Karsten Golf Course in Tempe, Ariz. (West Regional). The top eight teams and two individuals not on those eight teams will advance to the NCAA Championships, May 19-22, at the Caves Valley Golf Club in Owning Mills, Md.
LSU appears to have gotten a good seeding as the No. 1, 3, 5 and two teams tied for sixth in the Golfstat rankings all are in other regions from the Lady Tigers. The number one seed for the 54-hole tournament is the host Arizona State team, ranked No. 2 in the country and the champions of the Pac-10 conference tournament.
The second seed is Southern California, ranked fourth in the Golfstat rankings, followed by third-seed LSU (No. 8 national ranking), followed by Pepperdine (13), Arkansas (16), San Jose State (21, WAC Champs), Arizona (22), California (20), UC Irvine (25) and San Francisco (27) rounding out the top 10 seeds.
The rest of the West field includes in seed order UNLV at No. 11, followed by TCU, Texas A&M, Oregon, Big West champ Long Beach State, Colorado, Texas, Baylor, Southland Conference champs Texas A&M Corpus Christi, Big Sky champions Northern Arizona and The Summitt League winners Oral Roberts.
“We’re very excited about our draw for the NCAA regionals,” said LSU women’s golf coach Karen Bahnsen. “I like that golf course. It’s been a long time since we have played it, but it is a very good golf course and one we should be able to handle. I think the field looks good and our seeding. The girls are fired up. We need to get finals out of the way before we leave next Tuesday and then we will be ready to go.”
The Karsten course plays to a par of 72 and will be at 6,286 yards. The course plays to a par 35 with just one par five on the first nine and 37 on the final nine holes with three par fives in play. LSU last was on this course in 1995 in a regular season event.
This is the 15th time since the NCAA started conducting regional qualifiers in 1993 for women that the Lady Tigers have qualified for regional play. LSU missed only in 1994 and 2003 and this will be the first time the Tigers have been assigned to the West regional for play. Last year, LSU won a one-hole playoffs after 54 holes in the Central Regional at the UT Golf Course in Austin, Texas, to advance to the championships in Albuquerque, N.M., where LSU finished 15th.
The No. 1 seed in the Central is the No. 1 team in the Golfstat rankings, UCLA, with No. 3 Virginia the top seed in the East region. In all, 11 of the 12 SEC teams made the regional round, with Auburn (2 seed), Alabama (3), Tennessee (7), Vanderbilt (8), Georgia (9), Ole Miss (13) and South Carolina (14) selected in the East, Kentucky (15) in the Central and joining LSU in the West is Arkansas (5).
NCAA Women’s Golf Regional Selections
May 7-9, 2009
East Regional
The East regional will be played May 7-9 at the Mark Bostick Golf Course, Gainesville, Florida, hosted by the University of Florida. Conference automatic qualifiers are indicated in parenthesis next to the institution.
Teams:
1. Virginia
2. Auburn (Southeastern Conference)
3. Alabama
4. North Carolina
5. Duke
6. Denver (Sun Belt Conference)
7. Tennessee
8. Vanderbilt
9. Georgia
10. Tulane (Conference USA)
11. Florida
12. East Carolina
13. Mississippi
14. South Carolina
15. Furman (Southern Conference)
16. Charleston
17. Florida State
18. Central Florida
19. Coastal Carolina (Big South Conference)
20. Stetson (Atlantic Sun Conference)
21. Jackson State (Southwestern Athletic Conference)
Individuals:
1. Susannah Aboff, Princeton
2. Julia Potter, Missouri
3. Jessica Hollandsworth, Maryland
Central Regional
The Central regional will be played May 7-9 at the Scarlet Golf Course, Columbus, Ohio, hosted by The Ohio State University. Conference automatic qualifiers are indicated in parenthesis next to the institution.
Teams:
1. UCLA
2. Oklahoma State (Big 12 Conference)
3. Purdue (Big Ten Conference)
4. Wake Forest (Atlantic Coast Conference)
5. Louisville (Big East Conference)
6. Kent State (Mid-American Conference)
7. Michigan State
8. Ohio State
9. Stanford
10. New Mexico (Mountain West Conference)
11. Georgia State (Colonial Athletic Association)
12. Notre Dame
13. North Carolina State
14. Washington
15. Kentucky
16. Chattanooga
17. Michigan
18. Murray State (Ohio Valley Conference)
19. Illinois State (Missouri Valley Conference)
20. Harvard (Ivy Group)
21. Fairleigh Dickinson (Northeast Conference)
Individuals:
1. Kendall Dye, Oklahoma
2. Kayla Mortellaro, Idaho
3. Sara Wikstrom, Arkansas, Little Rock
West Regional
The West regional will be played May 7-9 at the ASU Karsten Golf Course, Tempe, Arizona, hosted by Arizona State University. Conference automatic qualifiers are indicated in parenthesis next to the institution.
Teams:
1. Arizona State (Pacific-10 Conference)
2. Southern California
3. LSU
4. Pepperdine
5. Arkansas
6. San Jose State (Western Athletic Conference)
7. Arizona
8. California
9. UC Irvine
10. San Francisco
11. UNLV
12. TCU
13. Texas A&M
14. Oregon
15. Long Beach State (Big West Conference)
16. Colorado
17. Texas
18. Baylor
19. Texas A&M-Corpus Christi (Southland Conference)
20. Northern Arizona (Big Sky Conference)
21. Oral Roberts (The Summit League)
Individuals:
1. Miki Ueoka, Santa Clara
2. Chelsea Stelzmiller, UC Davis
3. Alice Kim, UC Davis