Crimson Tide making 18th consecutive appearance in NCAA championship field
The Auburn and Alabama women’s golf teams were selected Wednesday to play in the upcoming NCAA Women’s Championship.
Auburn will host a regional at the Auburn University Club May 6-8, while Alabama will travel across the country to play in the Cle Elum Regional in Cle Elum, Washington. Auburn is a No. 2 seed at its regional, while Alabama is a No. 7 seed. There are x regionals and the top five teams from each advance to the championship tournament May 17-22 at Omni La Costa Resort & Spa in Carlsbad, California.
Also, at each regional the top individual player not from a qualifying team earns a berth in the championship field.
There are six regionals spread across the country.
Both coaches were pleased their teams were selected for regional play.
“I feel like our team has been playing well and we’re trending in the right direction,” Auburn head coach Melissa Luellen said. “It does not matter if you’re home or on the road, we have to just stay in our bubble, stay focused and stick to the process of how to hit good golf shots and let the results take care of itself.”
Alabama coach Mic Potter echoed Luellen’s sentiment.
“We are very excited to be traveling to the state of Washington for the NCAA Cle Elum Regional,” he said. “Most of our team has never visited the Pacific Northwest so this is a new opportunity. It is also an opportunity for us to move closer to our goal of competing for a national championship. If we stay calm and composed, and execute the way we are capable of, we can compete with the best.”
Joining Auburn in the regional are No. 2 South Carolina, No. 14 Oregon, No. 23 Georgia, North Carolina, Michigan, Houston, Tulsa, Miami, Kennesaw State, ETSU and Albany.
The 2024 regional will mark the fourth time that the women’s program has hosted a NCAA Regional and the third time that a regional has been played at Auburn University Club.
Fifty-four-hole regional competitions will be played at to determine the participants in the championship finals. The low five teams and the low individual not on those teams will advance to the finals. Beginning in 2024, regional champion awards will be given to the team advancing to the finals.
Auburn women will play on their home course
“I think it’s such a challenging golf course,” Luellen said of Auburn University Club. “Local knowledge is very helpful. We’ve actually stayed away from the golf course for a while just so we didn’t get tired of it. We have such great courses in Auburn that we can play and we really utilize that. But in the last week, we’ve been focused on playing AU Club and getting ready as the greens transition to getting a little bit faster. They’ll still be firm, but we’re used to it.”
Auburn enters the regional coming off a runner-up finish in the stroke play portion of the SEC Championship and ranked No. 7 in the nation by Scoreboard.
Alabama is making 18th consecutive regional appearance under Potter and its 25th appearance in the event overall. Stanford is the No. 1 seed in the Cle Elum Regional, followed by Duke, Arizona State, Virginia and San Jose State. Other teams in the regional are Washington, Virginia Tech, Kansas, Long Beach State, Sacramento State and Seattle.
Alabama has won the NCAA Regional four times: 2011 Daytona Beach Regional, 2013 Auburn Regional, 2017 Athens (Ga.) Regional and 2018 Tallahassee Regional, and the team made it to the national tournament 15 times under Potter. Alabama won the 2012 national championship.
In addition to Alabama and Auburn, two players with ties to the state will compete as individual. Samford’s Gabi Nicastro (Huntsville) and Lipscomb’s Lauren Thompson (Dothan) played their way into the field.
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Featured image courtesy of Auburn Athletics
