BARTLESVILLE, Okla. – SWOSU Women's Golf finished second place at the 2024 NCAA Division II Central Region Championship and in doing so, secured a spot at the national tournament for the third time in program history.
The Lady Bulldogs were one of nine qualified teams in the regional tournament field, held May 6-8 at Hilcrest Country Club. Henderson State won the tournament by six strokes after catching SWOSU on the leaderboard in Wednesday's final round. Seven strokes behind the Lady Bulldogs sat Rogers State.
The top three finishing teams (mentioned above) will advance to the NCAA Division II National Championships in Winter Garden, Florida on May 21-25.
SWOSU entered Wednesday's third and final round with a four-stroke lead after shooting the lowest team score in each of the first two rounds before HSU overtook them in the final 18 holes of play. Two Lady Bulldogs finished inside the top-5 –
Rebecca Lau in fourth and
Freya Sala who tied for fifth.
Lau was tied for the lead after the first round after she shot an even-par 72 on Monday. She added two strokes to her second round and two more in her final round and was +6 in the tournament. She birdied nine times in three rounds – the fourth most in the entire field.
Sala climbed the leaderboard from 19th all the way to fifth by tournament's end after shooting a 78 in her opening round. She carded a two-over 74 in round two before firing a one-under 71 in the final round – SWOSU's lowest day three score of any golfer. Sala faced 12 total par-5s in the tournament and performed the best out of the entire field in those holes at three-under par.
Megan Brown finished tied for 14th in the tournament. She had a share of the lead with Lau after 18 holes but fell off with an additional 12 strokes added to her final two rounds.
Ashlyn Acosta, T-20th, and
Drew Dodgion, T-35th, rounded out the team.
For the first time since 2019, SWOSU will advance to the NCAA Division II National Championships held at Orange County National this year. The program has competed at the national tournament two other times, finishing tied for fourth in 2019 and 12th in 2014.
2024 Central Regional Championships
Monday-Wednesday, May 6-8
Bartlesville, Okla. (Hillcrest Country Club)
Final Results (pdf)
