Golf Earns First NCAA Regional Bid Since 2005

CORAL GABLES, Fla. – The Miami Hurricanes women’s golf team earned its first NCAA postseason berth since 2005, receiving a bid to the NCAA West Regional at Stanford University. It will be Miami’s 20th NCAA postseason appearance and 32nd postseason trip in program history.

The five-time National Champions will make their first trip to the NCAA West Regional. Miami’s previous five NCAA berths came in the East Regional.

Miami, ranked No. 54 in the latest Golfstat standings, is one of 24 teams tabbed for the NCAA West Regional, which will be held May 9-11 at the Stanford Golf Course in Stanford, Calif., and hosted by the Stanford Cardinal. Miami is one of two ACC schools playing out west, joining in-state rival Florida State.

“This is such a great turn of events for our team,” assistant coach John Koskinen said. “The girls have really put their heart and soul into this program and they have really bought into what head coach Patti Rizzo and I have been instilling in them and we’ll continue to move forward step by step.”

The NCAA West Regional field also includes nine automatic qualifiers that won their respective conference championships – USC (Pac 12), Pepperdine (West Coast), Denver (WAC), UNLV (Mountain West), Harvard (Ivy League), Kent State (MAC), Northern Arizona (Big Sky), North Dakota State (Summit League) and Long Island (Northeast).

“Rika [Park] and Leticia [Ras-Anderica] have played well all year,” Koskinen said. “The freshmen had it tough this year. They’ve had to step in and step up to playing right away and they have.”

Prior to Monday’s announcement, the Canes tied for fifth at the ACC Championship – their best finish since joining the league. Sophomore Leticia Ras-Anderica, who competed at the 2012 NCAA Central Regional as an individual, was the Canes’ best individual finisher, tying for third at the ACC Championship.

Three 54-hole regional tournaments will be conducted May 9-11 to determine the championships field. Regional tournaments are considered preliminary rounds of NCAA championships competition, and all national championships policies apply. A total of 378 participants have been selected for regional competition. Of these players, 126 will advance to the championships finals; eight teams and two individuals will advance from each regional.

The 32nd annual NCAA Division I Women’s Golf Championship will be held May 21-24 at the University of Georgia Golf Course in Athens, Ga., and will be hosted by the Georgia Bulldogs.