Michigan State University Athletics
Monday, May 8
PGA National Resort (Palm Beach Gardens, Fla.)
Michigan State University
vs
NCAA Regionals
Women’s Golf Ready for 23rd NCAA Regional Appearance
5/7/2023 2:07:00 PM | Women's Golf
East Lansing, Mich. – Michigan State's women's golf team begins play in the 2023 NCAA Palm Beach Regional on Monday morning.
The three-day, 54-hole event will be played from Monday, May 8 to Wednesday, May 10 at the par-72, 6,312-yard course at PGA National in Palm Beach Gardens, Fla.
The Spartans tee off at 8 a.m. on Monday, playing alongside Duke and UCF.
The top five teams and two individuals (not among the top five teams) will advance from regional competition to play in the NCAA Championships, which will be held from May 19-24 at Grayhawk Golf Club in Scottsdale, Ariz.
Live scoring will be available via Golfstat.
THE LINEUP
1. Brooke Biermann
2. Shannon Kennedy
3. Katie Lu
4. Leila Raines
5. Valentina Rossi
6. Paula Balanzategui
STARTING FIVE
The three-day, 54-hole event will be played from Monday, May 8 to Wednesday, May 10 at the par-72, 6,312-yard course at PGA National in Palm Beach Gardens, Fla.
The Spartans tee off at 8 a.m. on Monday, playing alongside Duke and UCF.
The top five teams and two individuals (not among the top five teams) will advance from regional competition to play in the NCAA Championships, which will be held from May 19-24 at Grayhawk Golf Club in Scottsdale, Ariz.
Live scoring will be available via Golfstat.
THE LINEUP
1. Brooke Biermann
2. Shannon Kennedy
3. Katie Lu
4. Leila Raines
5. Valentina Rossi
6. Paula Balanzategui
STARTING FIVE
- The Spartans are making their seventh-straight NCAA Regional appearance and the program's 23rd since 1999.
- Michigan State is ranked No. 34 in the country in the latest Golfstat rankings and No. 39 by Golfweek.
- MSU is coming off a sixth-place finish at the Big Ten Championships.
- Michigan State posted four top-five finishes this year, including a runner-up showing at the Lady Buckeye Invitational, the final regular season event of the season.
- Junior Valentina Rossi, who is second on the team in scoring average (72.54), was named All-Big Second Team last week, her first all-conference honor.
- Rossi, who won the Women's Amateur Latin American (WALA) Championship in Argentina (in November), missed the Big Ten Championships while playing in the LPGA's Chevron Championship.
- Sophomore Brooke Biermann, who is third on the team with a 72.97 scoring average, has been MSU's top individual finisher five times season, including in the last three events, tying for 16th place at the Big Ten Championships.
- Michigan State is making its seventh-straight NCAA Regionals appearance and 23rd since 1999. The Spartans are looking to advance to the NCAA Championships for the second time in the last three years, as the team tied for fourth the Louisville Regional in 2021 and finished in 16th place at the NCAA Championships in Scottsdale, Arizona.
- While head coach Stacy Slobodnik-Stoll is making her 23rd appearance in NCAA Regionals, the Michigan State lineup features four players who have each had seen Regional action.
- Juniors Leila Raines and Valentina Rossi will be playing in their third NCAA Regional and were part of the 2021 team that advanced to the NCAA Championships.
- Last year, Raines tied for 10th place individually at the NCAA Stillwater Regional and advanced to play in the NCAA Championships.
- The Spartans lineup last year included current sophomores Brookie Biermann and Katie Lu.
- The Spartans' three lowest 54-hole team scores at an NCAA Regional have come since 2017, as their 872 in Athens in 2017 is the lowest.
- MSU shot a 5-over par 878 in 2021 in Louisville for the second-lowest mark, while the 882 in 2019 in Austin is the third-lowest.
- Last year in the NCAA Stillwater Regional, the Spartans shot a 21-over par 885 (303-292-200) and finished in fifth place, just four shots out shy of advancing.
- Sophomore Brooke Biermann has etched her name into the Michigan State record book this season.
- The sophomore is the only player in the Spartans lineup to appear in every event this season, leading the team in events played (10) and rounds played (30).
- Biermann is third on the team in scoring average at 72.97, which ranks eighth all-time in a single-season in the Michigan State record book.
- Biermann has stepped up her play during the spring season, carrying in a 72.53 scoring average and was the team's top finisher in the final three events of the regular season.
- She opened the season-ending Lady Buckeye Invitational with a 5-under par 67 – the 13th-lowest 18-hole score in program history – on the way to a tie for sixth place individually at 2-under par 214.
- Junior Valentina Rossi was named to the All-Big Ten Conference Second Team on April 26.
- Rossi has appeared in eight tournaments and played in 24 rounds this year and is second on the team in scoring average at 72,54, with three-top 20 finishes this year.
- Her best finish this season was a tie for 13th place with a 2-under par 214 at The Landfall Tradition in October … She also fired a 6-under par 66 in the second round of the ASU Invitational, the best round of her career and tied for the fifth-lowest in program history.
- Michigan State's international players have had a history of success in recent years, and this season was no different.
- Junior Valentina Rossi became the second-straight Spartan, joining Valery Plata, to win the Women's Amateur Latin America, which she did last November.
- As a results of the win, Rossi did not play in this year's Big Ten Championships as she had received in exemption into the LPGA Chevron Championship.
- Rossi, who played in last summer's U.S. Amateur at Chambers Bay in Washington, also represented her native Argentina at the World Amateur Team Championships in Paris late last summer.
- An All-Big Ten Second Team selection this year, Rossi is second on the team in scoring average this year (72.54) and has three top-20 finishes.
- The Michigan State women's golf program has appeared in 23 of the past 24 NCAA Regionals (1999-2014; 2016-23) and has earned a berth in the NCAA Championships 12 times since 2000 (2000, 2001, 2002, 2004, 2005, 2007, 2009, 2012, 2013, 2014, 2017, 2021).
- In addition, since the inception of the conference championships in 1974, only Ohio State (18) has won more league titles than the Spartans (14).
- MSU won five consecutive Big Ten titles from 1974-78, and has won conference crowns in 1982, 2001, 2007, 2011, 2012, 2014, 2017, 2018 and 2021.
- In Stacy Slobodnik-Stoll's 26 years guiding the program, she has led MSU to eight Big Ten titles (2001, 2007, 2011, 2012, 2014, 2017, 2018, 2021), 12 trips to the NCAA Championships (2000, 2001, 2002, 2004, 2005, 2007, 2009, 2012, 2013, 2014, 2017, 2021), and 23 appearances in the NCAA Regionals (1999-2014, 2016-23).
- MSU has won 43 tournaments during Slobodnik-Stoll's tenure, and her players have earned All-Big Ten honors 58 times, including 36 first-team selections.
- She has been voted Big Ten Coach of the Year on five occasions (2001, 2007, 2012, 2017, 2018).
- Slobodnik-Stoll was inducted into the Michigan Golf Hall of Fame in June 2017 and the Women's Golf Coaches Association Hall of Fame in December 2017.
Players Mentioned
/ Women's Golf
/ Women's Golf
/ Women's Golf
/ Women's Golf
/ Women's Golf
/ Women's Golf
/ Women's Golf
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