CHARLOTTESVILLE, Va. – The Virginia women’s golf team is set to compete in the NCAA Championships for the fifth consecutive season when competition gets underway Friday (May 22) at the Omni LaCosta Resort in Carlsbad, Calif.
The Cavaliers will tee off at 7:47 a.m. PT (10:47 a.m. ET) along with Kentucky and LSU. Virginia qualified for the NCAA Championships after tying for fourth at the Chapel Hill Regional.
Virginia is one of 30 teams competing for the national championships and stroke play champion.
After three days (May 22-24) of stroke play, the field is reduced to 15 teams and the top nine individuals not on one of those teams for the fourth round (May 25) that will decide the individual champion.
The Virginia Lineup
|
Name |
Year |
Hometown |
Stroke Avg. |
|
Jr. |
Pleasanton, Calif. |
71.00 |
|
|
Fr. |
Miami, Fla. |
73.34 |
|
|
So. |
Albany, N.Y. |
73.50 |
|
|
Fr. |
Crozet, Va. |
73.90 |
|
|
Jr. |
Oernskoeldsvik, Sweden |
73.97 |
|
|
Fr. |
Vancouver, Canada |
74.73 |
*Alternate
Live Coverage
Golf Channel will feature extensive coverage of the championship beginning Monday, May 25. Here is a full listing of coverage (all times are eastern):
Monday, May 19: Fourth Round of Stroke Play, 5:30-9:30 p.m.
Tuesday, May 26: Match Play Quarterfinals, 1-3:30 p.m.
Tuesday, May 26: Match Play Semifinals, 6-10 p.m.
Wednesday, May 27: Match Play Championship, 6-10 p.m.
Regional Recap
The Cavaliers placed fifth at the NCAA Chapel Hill Regional at the UNC Finley Golf Course following a three-team playoff for the final two advancing positions.
With the team sitting at 19-over for the tournament, Jaclyn LaHa delivered a birdie on her final hole to position Virginia in a tie for fourth place at 18-over 858 with Michigan State and NC State. UVA and Michigan State claimed the final two positions following a playoff.
Jaclyn LaHa led the Cavaliers with a 10th-place finish and a 54-hole score of even-par 210 (69-70-71) while Elsie MacCleery tied for 14th at 2-over 212 (67-73-72). MacCleery’s first round 67 (-3) marked a career-best 18-hole score and is tied for the second-lowest single-round score by a Cavalier at an NCAA Regional. Her performance also marked the second straight season in which a Cavalier freshman posted a round of 3-under at a regional after Kennedy Swedick carded a 3-under 68 as a substitute to help UVA advance out of the Charlottesville Regional in 2025.
Elite Company
Virginia is one of nine teams in this year’s NCAA field making their fifth consecutive appearance at the championships including: Baylor, Florida State, LSU, Oklahoma State, Southern California, Stanford, Texas and Wake Forest. In 2025, the Cavaliers finished eighth overall after advancing to match play for the first time since the 2016 championships.
LaHa’s Career Year
Jaclyn LaHa was named to the 15-member 2026 All-ACC Women’s Golf Team marking the first selection of her career.
She leads the Cavaliers with a stroke average of 71.00 which currently ranks as the lowest single-season scoring average in program history. She has posted top-10 finishes in seven of her 10 events in 2025-26 including the first medalist finish of her career winning the Terps Invitational (-5, 211). This season, 14 of her 29 rounds have been par or better.
NCAA History
Virginia is making its 16th NCAA Championships appearance in the 22-year history of the program. UVA’s best finishes at the NCAAs were back-to-back fourth-place showings in 2011 and 2012. In 2016, the Cavaliers finished fifth in stroke-play and lost to Washington 3-1-1 in the quarterfinals of match play. Last season, the Cavaliers finished 8th overall after losing to Stanford in the first round of match play.
Coaching Notes
- Head Coach Ria Scott is leading UVA to its sixth team appearance at the NCAA Championships. She guided the team to the final site in her first season at UVA in 2019 and again in 2022, 2023, 2024, 2025 and 2026.
- She has led UVA to NCAA regional play in each of her eight seasons at the helm excluding the 2020 season in which there was no postseason due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
- She coached Oregon to postseason play in all nine of her seasons in Eugene.
- Scott led the International team to the 2020 Palmer Cup championship and was an assistant coach on the 2019 international squad that also won the competition.