ANNAPOLIS, Md. – After winning its first Patriot League Championship in program history to end the month of April, Navy women's golf heads out west for its first appearance at the NCAA Championship where the Midshipmen are the seeded 18th at the Stanford Regional in Stanford, Calif. Competition runs from Monday through Wednesday with tee times starting at 11 a.m. ET each day. Navy is slated to tee off at 12:50 p.m. ET on Monday.
Fans at the Stanford Regional are limited to four individuals per student-athlete and coach and must meet
the guidelines set by Stanford University.
The Stanford Regional is taking place at the Stanford Golf Course, which is a par-71, 6,291-yard course. Joining the Midshipmen at the regional is Wake Forest, Oklahoma State, USC, Virginia Tech, Stanford, Arizona, Florida, Northwestern, Iowa State, Denver, TCU, San Diego State, Pepperdine, San Jose State, New Mexico State, Cal Poly and Sacramento State.
Within the GolfStat rankings, the regional has six teams ranked in the top 25 with top-seeded Wake Forest leading the group with a No. 3 ranking. Oklahoma State (6), USC (10), Virginia Tech (14), Stanford (20) and Arizona (22) round out the ranked teams in the 18-team field.
The top six teams will advance to the national championship at the Grayhawk Country Club in Scottsdale, Ariz. The three individuals not on advancing teams will also advance to compete for the individual national championship from May 21-26.
Navy comes into the week after posting three of its four lowest scores during the Patriot League Championship. The Midshipmen fired back-to-back 20-over par 308s to start the event and then notched a season-low 17-over par 305 during the final round to win the conference title. The championship comes after Navy finished second at the 2018 and 2019 league tournaments by a combined seven strokes.
On the season, Navy has competed in just four events and is averaging 316.2 over the team's 10 rounds this spring. Senior captain
Christine McDonnell leads the Midshipmen into the regional with an average of 78.8 and she also holds the program record for lowest career average with a 76.1 during her 69 career rounds.
The Midshipmen's freshman pair of
Stephanie Lee and
Mara Hirtle are second and third on the team in scoring averaging with marks of 78.9 and 79.1 to start their collegiate careers.
Angelina Chan and
Tori Smith round out Navy's starting five with season averages of 80.6 and 81.3, respectively.
Among Navy's starting five, the quintet has played 138 career rounds with half of those coming from McDonnell. Lee, Hirtle, Chan, Smith and alternate
Eve Worden all competed at their first Patriot League Championship last month where the trio of Lee, Hirtle and Chan all finished tied for fourth to earn First Team All-Patriot League honors while McDonnell's ninth-place finish at the championship placed her on the second team. McDonnell became the first player in program history to earn All-Patriot League honors three times after being on the first team in 2018 and 2019.
Joining the 18 teams at the Stanford Regional is UNLV's Samantha Fuller, Fresno State's Brigitte Thibault, BYU's Allysha Mae Mateo, Cal State Fullerton's Brittany Shin, Long Beach State's Holland Shourds and Utah Valley's Victoria Estrada – who are all competing as individuals this week.
Along with the Stanford Regional, the NCAA has three other 18-team, six-individual regionals happening around the country this week. The three other regional locations are the Baton Rouge Regional (University Club, Baton Rouge, La.), Columbus Regional (The Ohio State University, Columbus, Ohio) and Simpsonville Regional (University of Louisville Golf Club, Simpsonville, Ky.).
