May 8, 2013
Tournament Central
STANFORD, Calif. - Stanford, the No. 5 seed at the 2013 NCAA D1 Women's Golf West Regional, hosts the postseason tournament on Thursday through Saturday at the Stanford Golf Course.
Play begins at 7:30 a.m. each day off Holes #1 and #10 with a morning and afternoon wave. Admission is free. Live scoring, tee times, results and more can be found at the Tournament Central page: www.GoStanford.com/NCAAWGolf.
The No. 11 (Golfweek) Cardinal goes up against four top-10 nationally ranked teams: No. 1 USC, No. 5 Arizona, No. 8 Vanderbilt and No. 9 Purdue.
"USC is an extremely good team, best in the county for sure," said Anne Walker, Stanford's Margot and Mitch Milias Director of Women's Golf. "However, if we play a little above our average, we are a good enough team that we could compete with them for the Championship. We certainly won't be favorites but I think we have a chance."
Walker goes with the same spring lineup with freshman Mariah Stackhouse, freshman Lauren Kim, senior Sally Watson, sophomore Mariko Tumangan and junior Danielle Frasier.
These starting five players have led Stanford to three consecutive spring victories at the Peg Barnard, Cal Classic and Juli Inkster Spartan Invitational--a streak unseen by the program since 1975.
Since then the Cardinal finished sixth in the Anuenue Spring Break Classic, third at the PING/ASU Invitational and tied for fourth at the Pac-12 Championships.
"We have been peaking at the right time," Walker continued. "The last month has been a successful one for us. Coming into this week we played the golf course two or three times, and as always we worked on our short game because that is how you win championships--you make putts."
Stackhouse, a First Team All-Pac-12 selection, recorded her eighth top-10 finish at the Pac-12 Championships. The last time she competed on the Stanford Golf Course, she shot a collegiate and course record 61 (-10) for the Peg Barnard title. The freshman leads the Cardinal with two collegiate victories on the season and holds a 71.7 stroke average in 25 rounds.
Kim and Watson have both enjoyed two top-10 finishes on the season. Kim tied for fifth at the Peg Barnard, while Watson captured the Sonoma State Spring Invitational.
Tumangan led the Cardinal at the Cal Classic where she tied for second in her career-best finish.
In her season best finish, Frasier tied for ninth at the Juli Inkster Spartan Invitational where Stackhouse won her second title.
"I have been reminding the players that we don't need to be anyone special or do anything differently simply because it is postseason," Walker said. "The most important thing for us to do right now is to stay in character and stick with our routine."
"I have made a lot of friends on campus and in the community this year and to have them here rooting for all of us is special," Walker continued. "We have a great group of young women and I know that they want to do something great this week because we are at home."
Stanford has earned 20 consecutive NCAA regional bids since its inception in 1993 and have gone on to qualify for the finals 18 times, including a 15-year streak from 1993-2007.
The first and only time the Cardinal has won the regionals was in 2007 and that team went on to finish fifth in the NCAA finals. Stanford women's golf has yet to capture the NCAA Championships but came close in 2000 when the team finished second.
According to seed, the 24-team field is USC, Arizona, Vanderbilt, Purdue, Stanford, Georgia, Baylor, Texas A&M, Pepperdine, LSU, Denver, South Carolina, Ohio State, Oregon, UNLV, California, Florida, Miami, San Jose State, Harvard, Kent State, Northern Arizona, North Dakota State and Long Island.
The six individuals are Laura Wearn of Furman, Jennifer Coleman of Colorado, Sammi Stevens of New Mexico, A Ram Choi of Portland State, Luciane Lee of UC Irvine and Michelle Park of UC Irvine.
Three 54-hole regional competitions (Stanford in West, Oklahoma in Central, and Auburn in East) will be conducted to determine the participants at the national championships. Twenty-four teams and six individuals, who are not on those teams, will compete at each regional site. The low eight teams and the low two individuals, again not on those teams, will advance to the finals at the University of Georgia Golf Course in Athens, Georgia, with the University of Georgia as the host on May 21-24, 2013.
Follow @StanfordWGolf on Twitter for up-to-the-minute updates and quotes from the team. Get to know the players and the program through the daily features at facebook.com/StanfordWomensGolf