Bearkats earn bid to NCAA Regionals

For the first time in program history, the Sam Houston women's program has received an at-large bid to the NCAA Golf Championships.

The Bearkats, who finished runner up at the WAC Championship last week, received the No. 10 seed in the Albuquerque Regional.

Led by WAC Player of the Year Jennifer Herbst, the Bearkats finished the regular season as the No. 57 ranked team in the country in the GolfStat rankings and No. 59 in the Golfweek/Sagarin ratings.

"This is recognition for not only what we have done as a program this year, but also for what we have done over the last four years," said head coach Brandt Kieschnick. "This has been a process that we started building several years ago. We wanted to be in a position that we could make the NCAA Regionals no matter what happened in our conference championship. So much credit goes to (coaches) Tommy Chain and Jenna Young for the work they have put in to getting the team here."

This is the third straight season the Bearkats have advanced to the NCAA Regionals, but they haven't actually played in a regional since 2019. The 2020 championship was cancelled because of the pandemic and last season's regional in Baton Rouge was rained out.

"Last year was disappointing, no doubt, but everyone who was there and had their season end without ever stepping a foot on the golf course wanted to get back," Kieschnick said. "This team is now ready for the full NCAA championship experience."

The Kats are joined at the regional with another WAC school, New Mexico State. At the WAC championships last week in Kerrville, the Lobos edged Sam Houston for the title by three strokes. The only other team in their regional who the Kats have faced this season is North Texas.

The Bearkats first participated in the NCAA Regionals in 2019 where they finished 16^th out of 18 teams at the Norman Regional. Last season Hanna Alberto qualified for one of the three individual spots advancing from the Baton Rouge Regional based on her GolfStat ranking.

Six regional tournaments will be conducted May 9-11 to determine the championship finals field. A total of 72 teams and 36 individual participants have been selected for regional competition. Of the 396 players participating in the regionals, 132 will advance to the championship finals, with the top four teams and top two individuals (not on an advancing team) advancing from each regional.

The national championships will be May 20-25 at Grayhawk Golf Club in Scottsdale, Arizona hosted by Arizona State and The Thunderbirds. The final three days of the championships will be televised live by the GOLF Channel.

Albuquerque Regional Site
The Albuquerque Regional will be played at the UNM Championship Course in Albuquerque, New Mexico and will be hosted by New Mexico. Conference automatic qualifiers are indicated in parenthesis next to the institution.
Teams:
1.         Oregon (Pac-12 Conference)
2.         Florida
3.         Texas (Big 12 Conference)
4.         Arizona
5.         Georgia
6.         TCU
7.         Louisville
8.         North Texas (Conference USA)
9.         Oklahoma
10.       Sam Houston
11.       Northern Arizona (Big Sky Conference)
12.       New Mexico State (Western Athletic Conference)

Individuals:
1.         Patricie Mackova, Maryland
2.         Sara Kjellker, San Diego State
3.         Bernice Olivarez Ilas, San Diego State
4.         Napat Lertsadwattana, New Mexico
5.         Lauren Lehigh, New Mexico
6.         Pluem Yongyuan, So. Utah

Bearkats earn bid to NCAA Regionals

Players Mentioned

Hanna Alberto

Jennifer Herbst

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