Wolfpack Women’s Golf Punches Ticket to NCAA Championships

RALEIGH — For the first time since the 2014-15 season, NC State is headed to the NCAA Women’s Golf Championships after placing second in the Raleigh Regional with a cumulative team score of 861 (-3).

The Wolfpack took huge advantage of the familiarity with its home course as it entered the regional as the eight seed before earning a top-five finish to secure advancement to the final NCAA Championships site. Arizona (859, -5), Wake Forest (864, E), TCU (866, +2) and Florida State (870, +6) also move on out of the Raleigh Regional.

NC State made plenty of history this week with its highest regional finish ever, its second-best 54-hole NCAA Tournament score of all time and Lauren Olivares Leon setting both 18-hole (67, -5) and 54-hole (208, -8) individual postseason program records. This was the Pack’s second time in 20 NCAA regional appearances finishing with an under-par team score, and the team’s opening day 282 was the second-best round by any team in the field all week.

All three of the Olivares Leon’s scores in the regional came in under par as the Wolfpack sophomore shot two-under (70) in Wednesday’s round to finish eight-under (208) for the week. She tied for second individually, which is the best regional finish by a Wolfpack player in program history.

Natalie Armbruester closed out her regional run with her best score in the final round, a 70 (-2) that was highlighted by four birdies in the first seven holes.

NC STATE SCORES

T2. Lauren Olivares Leon: 67-71-70=208 (-8)

T14. Natalie Armbruester: 72-75-70=217 (+1)

T24. Vania Simont: 74-72-73=219 (+3)

T58. Caitlin Whitehead: 81-81-7=240 (+24)

Isabel Amezcua: 69-70-DQ

TEAM LEADERBOARD

Arizona: 286-292-281=859 (-5)

NC State: 282-288-291=861 (-3)

Wake Forest: 292-285-287=864 (E)

TCU: 292-288-286=866 (+2)

Florida State: 283-296-291=870 (+6)

Purdue: 287-291-295=873 (+9)

Arizona State: 284-288-302=874 (+10)

Florida: 290-293-295=878 (+14)

Nebraska: 296-302-295=893 (+29)

Campbell: 297-299-305=901 (+37)

North Texas: 308-299-304=911 (+47)

Richmond: 310-308-325=943 (+79)

NC State will be one of 30 teams in action at the NCAA Championships held at Grayhawk Golf Club in Scottsdale, Ariz., from May 19-24. All 30 teams will participate in three rounds…