Huskies Advance to 2018 NCAA Championships

Wednesday, May 9

Tallahassee, FL

All Day

University of Washington

NCAA Regionals

May 09, 2018 | Women's Golf

Results

TALLAHASSEE, Fla. – The 15^th ranked University of Washington Women's Golf team clinched a spot in the 2018 NCAA Championships field on Wednesday as the Huskies finished fifth at the Tallahassee Regional with a three-day total of 10-under 854 (273-289-292). It will be the Dawgs 14^th appearance in the National Championship and their first since winning it all in 2015-16, when juniors Julianne Alvarez, Sarah Rhee and Wenyung Keh were freshmen.

"This was the definition of a total team effort this week," said head coach Mary Lou Mulflur. "Different players stepped up every day. Without Wenyung's first round along with Sarah and Julianne, then Karen's second round and Rino today, we may not have been in this position. We're really proud of them for surviving and advancing and I think we're starting to peak at the right time."

Despite its best round of the tournament coming on Monday, Washington was in the top six of the 18-team field all three days, finishing five strokes above the cut to secure one of the six spots advancing. This year's national championships will be held May 18-23 in Stillwater, Okla., at Karsten Creek Golf Course and will be hosted by Oklahoma State.

"I'm excited for these guys to get the chance to experience the national championship, equally for the two who haven't been and for the three that get to go back," added Mulflur. "Last year was a hard pill to swallow so I'm happy that they get to see it and have that experience this year to remind them during all those hard practices and tough events, what they are playing for and how special the opportunity is."

The Huskies were led by junior Sarah Rhee who carded her fifth top 10 showing of the year and her fourth over the last five events. She placed eighth overall with a career-best score of 8-under 208 (67-68-73), which was also the best round by a Husky since SooBin Kim shot a 9-under 210 in November of 2014. Additionally, Rhee now has seven career top 10 efforts.

"Sarah had such a great week, even with her 1-over today," said Mulflur. "She's really stepped her game up over the last month or so and it is showing. She's playing solid and with confidence which is going to really help us when we get to Stillwater."

The career week for Rhee started with her best round as a Dawg shooting a 5-under 67. Following up with a 4-under 68, Rhee was tied for second heading into the final day. Even though it was her highest scoring round, Rhee still posted two birdies en route to a 1-over 73. She finished the week with 13 birdies helping her get the eighth place finish.

Also earning a spot in the top 25 was junior Wenyung Keh, who tied for 25^th with an even-par 216 (63-77-76). Keh's week began with a bang as she set the UW record and Don Veller Course record with her 9-under 63. After a rough second day where she went 5-over, she began Wednesday's round going even par through her front nine.

She stayed at even until holes 14 and 15 caused her some problems, going bogey, triple bogey to put her at 4-over, where she would finish the day. With her placement, Keh extended her streak of consecutive top 25 finishes overall to 14-straight events, dating back to the 2016-17 season.

Freshman Rino Sasaki was one of the bright spots for the Huskies during the final 18 holes as she climbed 20 spots up the leaderboard to tie for 40^th with her 3-over 219 (73-78-68). Sasaki's 4-under 68 on Wednesday was done with a clean scorecard as she knocked in four birdies, two on par fours and two on par fives, giving her her best round as a Husky. She improved her day two score by 10 strokes thanks to the birdies on holes five, 10, 12 and 15.

"Rino was just rock solid all day today, what a round for her," said Mulflur. "She hit some beautiful birdie putts and was just calm out there today, enjoying playing and it was good to see because we needed her scorecard."

Alvarez, who's score unfortunately didn't count for UW on Wednesday, finished tied for 46^th overall with her 5-over 221. The junior's final day was her highest scoring effort after two stellar rounds to open the event. She went 2-under on day one followed by a 1-over on day two to enter Wednesday tied for 25^th. Due to six bogeys on an otherwise clean scorecard, Alvarez dropped 21 spots into her 46^th place tie.

Rounding out UW's group was freshman Karen Miyamoto who tied for 54^th at 8-over224. Miyamoto went 78-71-75 over the three days and her 3-over 75 on Wednesday was the third best score by a Husky over the final 18 holes.

The other five teams advancing out of the Tallahassee Regional were No. 2 Alabama, No. 28 Florida State, No. 7 Furman, No. 10 Arizona and No. 18 Wake Forest, who needed a one-hole playoff win over No. 29 Clemson to secure the final spot.

The Huskies will be guaranteed three days of stroke play and will need to finish in the top 15 (or top nine individuals not on a top -15 team) to advance to the final day of stroke play. The fourth day will determine the eight teams that will advance to match play as well as the 72-hole individual champion. The match-play format contested over two days will determine a single team champion. The event will be covered in depth by the Golf Channel for the third-straight year.