BATON ROUGE — The LSU women’s golf team officially received an invitation Monday to the NCAA East Regional Golf Championships and hopes to have the home-course advantage when the tournament tees off on May 10 at the school’s own University Club.
The Lady Tigers, trying to advance to the NCAA Division I Women’s Golf Championships for the second straight year and the ninth time since 1982, will be playing in their 13th regional in the last 15 years.
The event is set for the University Club, May 10-12, with 18-holes each day. A total of 21 teams and three individuals will take part in the event with the top eight teams and the top two individuals who are not part of those eight teams will advance to the Division I Championships set for Daytona Beach, Fla., later in May.
LSU will be the 12th seed in the East Regional that features 12 teams ranked in the top 28 teams in the country and 17 teams in the top 45. The two-time defending national champions, the Duke Blue Devils, are the top seed in the East and the No. 1 team in the latest Golfstat rankings.
The rest of the field and their Golfstat rankings: 2. UCLA (9), 3. Auburn (6), 4. Purdue (12), 5. Texas A&M (14), 6. North Carolina (19); 7. Alabama (24); 8. Wake Forest (20); 9. South Carolina (25); 10. Virginia (21); 11. Florida State (28); 12. LSU (27); 13. Louisville (32); 14. South Florida (38); 15. North Carolina State (37); 16. Birmingham Southern (39); 17. Furman (45); 18. College of Charleston (55); 19. Western Carolina (92); 20. Jacksonville State (154); 21. Jackson State (186).
Duke (ACC), A&M (Big 12), Birmingham-Southern (Big South), Western Carolina (Southern), Jacksonville State (Ohio Valley) and Jackson State (SWAC) advanced as automatic qualifiers from their leagues while the other teams were chosen at-large.
The three individual selections for the East Regional were: Araceli Felgueroso of Coastal Carolina, Lene Krog of East Carolina and Amanda Mathis of Mississippi State.
“This is a strong site,” said LSU Coach Karen Bahnsen. “The East is so deep. But it’s not a field that we can’t do very well in. The girls are working very hard because this tournament means a lot to them and we are going to do everything we can to take advantage of playing at a place we are very familiar with and advancing to the championship round.”
Third-ranked Georgia, winner of the SEC Tournament Championship, and fourth-ranked Vandy are the top two seeds in the Central Regional played on the same dates in Ann Arbor, Mich., Tennessee, ranked 10th in the country, is the fourth seed in that regional. Second-ranked Arizona State is the top seed in the West Regional event to be played in St. George, Utah and hosted by BYU. Seventh-ranked Florida is the third seed in that event.
Nine teams and one individual were selected for postseasons play from the SEC.
LSU’s practice round on May 9 is set for 10:22 a.m. and the Lady Tigers will tee off with Virginia and Florida State in the first wave of the tournament off the 10th tee on Thursday, May 10 at 8:10 a.m. Admission to the NCAA East Regional is free for all spectators.