University of Indianapolis women’s golf won D-II title

Simple. Solid. Calm. Tough.

Those are the four words that UIndy women’s golf abides by as a program. The program needed that mindset en route to winning the 2024 Division II women’s national championship.

UIndy entered the national tournament — played at Orange County National Golf Center in Orlando, Fla. — coming off a disappointing second-place finish in the East Regional. After three days of regional play at Prairie View Golf Club in Carmel, UIndy was tied with Findlay at a total stroke count of 905. The tie was broken with all five golfers for UIndy and Findlay each playing a playoff hole on May 8. After all 10 golfers played the hole, UIndy lost by one stroke, and Findlay won the regional championship.

“It was really good to get that experience,” freshman Caroline Whallon said. “Obviously, that playoff hole did not end how any of us wanted. It really sucked to lose regionals, but I learned a lot from playing in a playoff hole with your teammates, with the other team, and it’s a completely different setting.”

After falling short in the regional, UIndy didn’t enter the national tournament as a favorite. The tournament format was as follows: Eighteen teams made the five-day competition. After three rounds of stroke play by a team’s selected five golfers, the teams with the eight lowest scores advanced to match play. The eight-team match play portion of the tournament was decided by whichever team won the most individual matches against another team.

The Greyhounds were tied for eighth after the first round of stroke play. They were in a three-way tie for eighth late in the third round of stroke play, and all five of their golfers had at least one birdie on the back nine. Led by junior Anci Dy’s three birdies, UIndy finished tied for seventh and moved on to match play.

“The mental toughness that these girls showed all year is probably the biggest reason we won,” coach Brent Nicoson said. “They handle adversity, they handled mentally tough situations, they handled physically tough situations, and they never panicked.”

UIndy’s quarterfinal matchup with West Texas A&M ended in a 2-2-1 tie. Because of Dy’s five-stroke win and freshman Jess Haines’ four-stroke win, UIndy’s cumulative score was four strokes lower than West Texas A&M’s, so the Greyhounds advanced to the semifinals.

In the semifinal against Dallas Baptist, three UIndy golfers birdied the first hole, and there was no looking back from there. UIndy won…