The Irish will make their fifth straight appearance in the NCAA regional golf tournament when they travel to Columbus, Ohio, on May 10 to take on the 24-team field.
"Playing in the regional has been one of our goals set out for us to achieve at the beginning of the year," Irish coach Susan Holt said. "We've been working toward it all season and were very excited to have a chance to play."
The regional will be the first time the Irish take the course coming off a disappointing Big East tournament in which the Irish lost by only one stroke. But the team is excited to get back out on the field, Holt said.
"The team is very excited to play on one of the best courses in the country," Holt said. "[Senior captain] Becca Huffer played in the regional here her freshman year and she's also very excited to get back. It was a big team goal of ours to make this trip and the players are very excited to have this opportunity."
Unfortunately for the Irish, the regional falls directly during finals week, leaving the team with a jumbled practice schedule leading up to the tournament.
"Everyone has parts of their games they need to work on this week. It's kind of tough for our players with finals looming, we're going to have some short practices," Holt said. "The players will have to do a lot on their own this week with our shortened practice schedule."
Though cut short on practice time, the Irish still hope to compete next week, and ultimately advance to the NCAA tournament. The team hopes it can match its record feat last year, when the Irish advanced to the NCAA tournament finals for the first time in program history.
"Our goals every year are to win the Big East, qualify for regionals, and advance to finals," Holt said. "We didn't get [the] Big East title, but we accomplished our second goal and now we will shoot for the finals."
Holt thinks the odds stack up well for the Irish, having seen
many of the 24-team field earlier in the season.
"I like our draw of teams we have to compete against," Holt said. "Certainly there are good teams in the field, but I feel like we match up well. We've beaten some already and I think the course will set up well for us. It's a very challenging course, and you have to hit quality shots, which our players can do."
Holt said the Irish need to come out focused and ready to
play if they want to advance.
"It takes four scores for us every round to produce our team total, we need all five players to contribute each day," Holt said. "Our girls need to tighten things up in this next week. We got a little sloppy at the Big East tournament and it cost us. Every shot counts.in these tournaments, we just need to stay patient, stay focused and stay confident. If we can do that we can advance."
The Irish tee off the NCAA regional tournament May 10 in Columbus, Ohio.
Contact Nick Boyle at
nboyle1@nd.edu
