Hoos Looking for Strong Finish

By Jeff White (jwhite@virginia.edu)
VirginiaSports.com

CHARLOTTESVILLE, Va. — For a team in an NCAA women’s golf regional, the goal is to finish in the top five of the 54-hole event, thus securing one of the 30 spots in the NCAA Championships.

With one round remaining in the Charlottesville Regional at Birdwood Golf Course, the Virginia Cavaliers are on pace to achieve that goal. UVA stands fifth in the 12-team regional—five strokes ahead of sixth-place NC State and two behind fourth-place Mississippi—with a 36-hole score of 6-over-par 574.

The Wahoos, seeded second in the regional, shot 2-over 286 in the opening round Monday, good for the fifth place. They followed that with a 4-over 288 on Tuesday.

“Honestly, I feel like our student-athletes came off of this round not feeling very good about the games that they had out there,” head coach Ria Scott said. “We haven’t had our A-game this week, but we’ve kind of gotten it around. But when you look back at the scoreboard and plus-4 is the second lowest round of the day, you know conditions are tough and Birdwood was demanding.”

Senior Megan Propeck led No. 11 Virginia with a 1-under 70 on Monday. Two Cavaliers shot 71 on Tuesday: senior Amanda Sambach and sophomore Jaclyn LaHa.

UVA’s home course hasn’t been especially forgiving during the regional. South Carolina is the only team under par (5-under 563).

“The rough is definitely a big factor out here,” LaHa said. “We play this course all the time, and it’s not too bad usually, and then leading up to this tournament they got the rough really thick. They got the course in amazing condition, but it’s playing a little bit differently for us than usual.”

The four Cavaliers whose scores counted Tuesday—LaHa, Sambach, Propeck and freshman Kennedy Swedick—recorded only nine birdies among them.

“The pin positions were a bit tougher today,” LaHa said. “Just adjusting to the greens, I think it was a little bit harder to make some putts today.”

The Hoos teed off on Birdwood’s back nine Tuesday. Their rounds concluded early in the afternoon on the par-3 ninth hole, where Sambach, a four-time All-ACC selection, closed her round with a birdie.

“It’s always great to finish on a good note,” Scott said, “so Amanda making that birdie on the last hole, just to have that energy with people watching is kind of fun. We’re certainly looking forward to how she can roll that into tomorrow.”

This marks the first time in the program’s 22-year history that UVA has hosted an NCAA regional. In all, there are six regional sites, and the top five teams from each qualify for the NCAA Championships, which begin May 16 in Carlsbad, Calif. The Hoos are looking to advance past the regional round for the 15^th time.

Birdwood is part of the Boar’s Head Resort, and that’s where the team is staying during the regional.

“We rarely have home events,” Scott said, “So this one’s really special in that way. But since we are on the road for 95 percent of our events, we do want to treat it like a tournament. So it just helps our players lock in when we have certain departure times, certain breakfast times, and really treat it like an away tournament … We wanted to operate this week like we typically would for a normal event.”

LaHa said the “whole week has been incredible. And it’s kind of weird because we’re staying at Boar’s Head, so it feels like we’re really at a tournament, but then we drive to the golf course, and it’s like, ‘I see this golf course every single day.’ ”

Propeck was the final Cavalier to finish Tuesday. After she parred No. 9, Virginia’s players and coaches gathered near the green for their customary post-round meeting.

“We always look for, hey, did you see anything out there that your teammates can learn from?” Scott said. “That’s one of our questions. What did you learn about the course today that you didn’t know yesterday? Even on a course that’s so familiar to us, we want to keep learning and keep adapting.

“The greens weren’t as fast as we expected them to be during this championship, and that’s one of the things that honestly we’ve had to adapt to. We didn’t get a lot of our putts to the hole, so that’s one of the things that we’re looking forward to doing tomorrow. It’s a little quick rundown of what they need to do individually to feel most prepared for the final round.”

The key for the Cavaliers in the final round Wednesday will be “playing some clean golf,” LaHa said, “and going out there and trying to hit fairways, hit greens. I think that’s all you can really do on this course. Try not to make some big numbers, because they’re definitely out there and it’s definitely possible.”

Scott said her team “just needs to play solid golf. We’ve kind of told them this all year: ‘You’re a really good team. You guys would not be 11^th in the country if you’re not a great team, and you don’t have to reach for things outside of your own golf game. You be you. You play your own game, and that is plenty good enough to get through.’ ”

LaHa’s confidence level heading into the final round? It’s high.

“I know what my team can do,” she said, “and they’re all incredible players, so I’m really excited for tomorrow.”

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