The top women's golf teams in the nation jumped on The Road to Grayhawk today with the announcement of the field for the 2023 NCAA Division I NCAA Women's Golf Championships.
Seventy-two teams, along with 36 individuals not associated with qualifying teams, will begin play at six regional sites throughout the country on Monday, May 8, with the top five teams and low individual not associated with an advancing team (six total) punching their tickets to the National Championships at Grayhawk Golf Club in Scottsdale, Ariz.
Each regional will be contested over three days and 54-holes of stroke play.
Defending NCAA champion Stanford landed the No. 1 overall seed while four SEC teams - LSU, South Carolina, Mississippi State and Texas A&M - along with Wake Forest out of the ACC also landed top seeds.
Here's a look at the field for the 2023 NCAA Division I Women's Golf Championships.
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Athens Regional
University of Georgia Golf Course; Athens, Georgia
The Teams: 1. South Carolina; 2. San Jose State; 3. Ole Miss; 4. Ohio State; 5. Georgia; 6. Maryland; 7. Kent State (Mid-American Conference); 8. Charleston (Colonial Athletic Association); 9. Kansas; 10. Furman (Southern Conference); 11. Augusta (Southland Conference); 12. Sacred Heart (Northeast Conference).
The Individuals: 1. Carla Bernat, Tulane; 2. Mathilde Delavallade, Penn State; 3. Mikhaela Fortuna, Oklahoma; 4. Catie Craig, Western Kentucky (Conference USA); 5. Christy Chen, Boston U (Patriot League); 6. Isabella Gomez, Harvard (The Ivy League).
Breakdown: South Carolina, which went winless during the regular season, landed the top seed in Athens due largely in part to playing one of the toughest schedules in the country. No. 2 seed San Jose State, which won the Albuquerque Regional last year, will make the long trip to Athens in an attempt to return to Grayhawk. Led by ANWA runner-up Jenny Bae, Georgia will have home course advantage in its attempt to advance to nationals. Maryland enters regionals with four consecutive top-five finishes and will look to get back to Grayhawk for the second time in program history.
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Palm Beach Gardens Regional
PGA National Resort Palm Beach; Gardens, Fla.
The Teams: 1. LSU; 2. Texas; 3. Northwestern; 4. UCF; 5. Duke; 6. Michigan State; 7. California; 8. Arkansas; 9. Alabama; 10. South Florida; 11. Penn (The Ivy League); 12. Quinnipiac (Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference).
The Individuals: 1. Christin Eisenbeiss, North Florida; 2. Sara Byrne, Miami (FL); 3. Yanjun Liu, Princeton; 4. Karissa Kilby, FIU; 5. Leah Onosato, Old Dominion (Sun Belt Conference); 6. Katherine Lemke, Creighton (Big East Conference).
Breakdown: Behind the world's second-ranked women's amateur in Ingrid Lindblad, top-seed LSU is a bona fide national championship contender. Third-seed Northwestern travels well. The Wildcats were a combined 58-under in its two trips to Florida this season and won two events out west (PING ASU Invitational; Silverado Showdown) in back-to-back weeks by a combined 21 shots. The Cinderella team of this regional is Penn. After finishing last at the Ivy League Championships a year ago, the Quakers held off Harvard to win the Ivy title this year by four shots to secure the league's automatic bid.
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Pullman Regional
Palouse Ridge Golf Club: Pullman, Wash.
The Teams: 1. Stanford; 2. Baylor; 3. Southern California (Pac-12 Conference); 4. Clemson (Atlantic Coast Conference); 5. Kentucky; 6. Texas Tech; 7. Houston; 8. North Carolina; 9. UNLV; 10. Sacramento State (Big Sky Conference); 11. Cal Poly (Big West Conference); 12. Green Bay (Horizon League).
The Individuals: 1. Camille Boyd, Washington; 2. Tiffany Le, UC Riverside; 3. Harriet Lynch, Fresno State; 4. Darcy Habgood, Washington State; 5. Stefanie Deng, Washington; 6. Cassie Kim, Gonzaga.
Breakdown: Top-seeded Stanford's depth will be tested throughout the postseason as the Cardinal is without two of its top players in Rachel Heck and Brooke Seay. Clemson, the surprise winner of the ACC Championship, will make the journey from the Pacific Northwest where it will face unpredictable weather conditions and a new type of grass. USC is coming off an impressive victory at the Pac-12 Championships and has advanced through regionals every year since 1998.
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Raleigh Regional
Lonnie Poole Golf Course; Raleigh, NC
The Teams: 1. Wake Forest; 2. Arizona State; 3. Florida State; 4. Florida; 5. Arizona; 6. North Texas (Conference USA); 7. TCU; 8. NC State; 9. Purdue; 10. Nebraska; 11. Campbell (Big South Conference); 12. Richmond (Patriot League).
The Individuals: 1. Dorota Zalewska, Chattanooga; 2. Kendall Turner, James Madison; 3. Mallory Fobes, UNCW; 4. Morgan Ketchum, Virginia Tech; 5. Becca DiNunzio, Virginia Tech; 6. Sarah Kahn, High Point (Big South Conference).
Breakdown: With Stanford wounded, Wake Forest is a strong favorite to win the national championship come May. Boasting one of the deepest teams in the country, the Demon Deacons have won five times this season. A loss in the ACC semifinals to Virginia should serve as a wake-up call for the Deacs, whose time is now to land the natty at Grayhawk. Arizona State will travel cross country in the hopes of returning home to compete for a national championship in its own backyard.
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San Antonio Regional
TPC San Antonio; San Antonio, Texas
The Teams: 1. Texas A&M (Southeastern Conference); 2. Auburn; 3. Pepperdine; 4. Oklahoma State (Big 12 Conference); 5. SMU (American Athletic Conference); 6. UCLA; 7. New Mexico (Mountain West Conference); 8. Denver (The Summit League); 9. Illinois (Big Ten Conference); 10. Sam Houston (Western Athletic Conference); 11. ULM (Sun Belt Conference); 12. Missouri State (Missouri Valley Conference).
The Individuals: 1. Victoria Gailey, Nevadal; 2. Allysha Mae Mateo, BYU; 3. Haley Vargas, Kansas State; 4. Camryn Carreon, UTSA; 5. Jasmine Leovao, Long Beach State (Big West Conference); 6. Alex Giles, Incarnate Word (Southland Conference).
Breakdown: Top-seed Texas A&M, winners of four events this season including the SEC Championship, enters regionals on a roll and has hopes of another deep run at Grayhawk come May. SMU returns to postseason for the first time in six years while Illinois hopes to continue a wave of momentum from its surprise win at the Big Ten Championships a week ago. UCLA, which has advanced from regional qualifying 24 times in its history, including each of the four seasons, will try to delay the retirement party of head coach Carrie Forsyth for a few more weeks. Forsyth announced she will be stepping away from her position earlier this week after 24 seasons in Westwood.
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Westfield Regional
The Club at Chatham Hills; Westfield, Ind.
The Teams: 1. Mississippi State; 2. Oregon; 3. Vanderbilt; 4. Iowa State; 5. Virginia; 6. Tulsa; 7. Tennessee; 8. Michigan; 9. Oregon State; 10. Xavier (Big East Conference); 11. Lipscomb (Atlantic Sun Conference); 12. Morehead State (Ohio Valley Conference).
The Individuals: 1. Isabella McCauley, Minnesota; 2. Carmen Griffiths, Louisville; 3. Luisamariana Mesones, Minnesota; 4. Sofia Torres, Colorado State; 5. Lauren Beaudreau, Notre Dame; 6. Sabrina Coffman, Cleveland State (Horizon League).
Breakdown: Behind Julia Lopez Ramirez and Hannah Levi, top-seed Mississippi State has won four times this season while Oregon advanced all the way to last year's national title match before falling to Stanford. Interim head coach Shannon O'Brien has guided Lipscomb to five wins this season, including the ASUN Conference Championship. O'Brien spent the nine years on staff with the Lipscomb women’s soccer team with her husband, Kevin O’Brien, the head women’s soccer coach, before moving into an assistant role with the women's golf team a year ago.