Michigan State University Athletics
Women's Golf Earns Second Straight NCAA Regional Bid
5/1/2000 12:00:00 AM | Women's Golf
May 1, 2000
East Lansing, Mich. - The Michigan State women's golf team has earned a bid to the NCAA East Regional for the second straight year and will be one of 24 schools vying for a spot at the NCAA Championship. The East Regional will be played at the par 72, 6,037-yard University Scarlet Course on the campus of Ohio State University in Columbus, Ohio. The 54-hole tournament runs from May 11-13.
"Our program has grown so much in the last several years that now we expect to make the NCAA Regional every year," third-year head coach Stacy Slobodnik said. "Our goal this season is to make it to Oregon for the finals."
The Spartans, who finished second at last weekend's Big Ten Championship, are one of five teams from the Midwest District and one of six conference schools (Purdue, Ohio State, Indiana, Northwestern and Penn State) to qualify.
The West Regional, which features 24 teams, will run May 11-13 at Karsten Golf Course in Tempe, Arizona. Eleven teams from the two regions, along with two at-large selections, will advance to the NCAA Championship in Sunriver, Ore., May 24-27. Three individuals from each regional will also qualify for the NCAA Championship.
Last season, the Spartans finished 11th out of 19 teams at the NCAA East Regional, just three strokes from qualifying for the NCAA Championship. MSU returns its top three players from that team, including sophomore Emily Bastel who became MSU's first-ever Big Ten Medalist when she won the conference crown last weekend.
"Last year we didn't really know what to expect," Slobodnik said. "We were so overwhelmed by being there, but this year we know we deserve to be there and we know that we are good enough to go on."
