On Friday morning, the Spartans women’s golf team teed off their first round of the NCAA Championships at 6:30 a.m. local time in Carlsbad, California at the Omni La Costa Resort and Spa. After walking 18 holes on the 6,330-yard course and waiting eight hours for the remaining 29 teams to complete their first round, MSU found itself in 13th place at the end of day one.
The Spartans share the 13th spot in a three-way tie with Virginia and Mississippi State with a team score of 6-over par. Vanderbilt currently holds first place in the 30-team field with a score of 6-under par, holding a two-shot lead over Oklahoma State. However, the field is loaded with powerful programs following closely behind at an even par in third place, including Arizona State, Oregon, Texas, and Florida.
While the Spartans didn’t finish round one in a top 10 position, the leaderboard is tight as 13 teams positioned from 3rd to 13th place are separated by just six strokes, showing the slim margins that will define this NCAA Championship.
The NCAA Championships is veteran territory for the Spartans as this year marks their fourth appearance in the last five years, and their 17th in program history. Head Coach Stacy Slobodnik-Stoll is seeing her 15th appearance with MSU and seniors Brooke Biermann and Katie Lu are handling the championship pressure for the third time.
Biermann and Lu were both strong players for Michigan State in the final round of the NCAA Norman Regional where they placed third to punch the ticket to the NCAA Championship. Biermann shot a 4-over par in the final round to finish with an even-par score, while Lu shot an even-par, and the two tied for 11th place.
Going into the first round of the championship, Lu has only seen more success as the best finisher for the Spartans with an even par, sharing 27th place overall. Lu started the 10th hole with a bogey, but the back nine proved to be tougher and she leveled out at even-par, with a birdie on the par-4 13th hole and birdie on the par-4 fifth hole.
The Spartans are seeing success from some younger talents as well with sophomore Ana Sofia Murcia finishing with a 1-over par score, tied for 46th place overall. Her scorecard included six pars with five birdies, three of them coming on the back nine.
Junior Taylor Kehoe is the third strongest finisher for MSU, tied at 64th place with a 2-over par that included three impressive birdies and 11 pars. Fellow junior Paula Balanzategui and senior Biermann are tied for 78th place with a 3-over par score. Balanzategui recorded one birdie with 14 pars and Biermann put up two birdies with 10 pars.
Saturday, May 17 at 11:50 a.m. (2:50 p.m. ET) local time, the Spartans are scheduled to tee off the second round alongside Florida and Kansas. After three rounds of play, the 30-team field will be cut in half to the top 15 teams. Michigan State will need a composed approach to maintain their top 15 spot and climb the leaderboard. The 15 teams will then go on to play a final round on Monday, May 19 and the top eight teams will then move on to match play.
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