Women’s Golf Tied for 12th Place Following NCAA Championships First Round

East Lansing, Mich. –Michigan State women’s golf team shot an even-par 288 in the opening round of the NCAA Championships at the La Costa Champions Course in Carlsbad, Calif. on Friday morning and is tied for 12th place among 30 teams.

The championship will feature 54 holes of stroke play qualifying and then the top 15 teams and nine individuals (not on advancing teams) will play a final 18 holes to determine the individual champion and the top eight teams will advance to match play.  On May 21 there will be 36 holes of match play and then the match play championship will take place May 22. 

“I think the day went very well,” MSU Head Coach Stacy Slobodnik-Stoll said. “We’re in two different waves but to be tied for second after the morning wave means we did our job.  That’s very encouraging. All five players played very nicely, they played steady, we didn’t have any real big hiccups out there, so I think they felt very comfortable out on this golf course.”

Clemson leads the field at 8-under par 280, with Texas A&M second at 7-under par 281, while Stanford, Auburn and Northwestern are tied for third place at 3-under par 285. MSU is tied for 12th place with Arkansas at even-par 288, just three shots out of the top-five.

Final First Round Results

The Spartans, playing in their third NCAA Championships in the last four year and the 14th under Head Coach Stacy Slobodnik-Stoll, teed off on the par-72, 6,297-yard course at 7:57 a.m. on a gray and cloudy morning in Southern California.

MSU shared the team lead through parts of the first round, playing the front nine in 3-under par, with a trio of golfers making the turn at 1-under par.

The team’s score of 288 is tied for the second-best single round by an MSU team in the NCAA Championship and the best since a 288 in the fourth round in 2014.

Senior Leila Raines, who led MSU at the NCAA East Lansing Regional with a 6-under par 210 and a fourth-place finish, continued her strong play this spring.  She was even-par through the front and posted a pair of birdies on the back to finish at 1-under par 71 and finished the day tied for 18th place in the field of individuals.

Sophomore Paula Balanzategui and junior Brooke Biermann are tied for 38th place with scores of even par-72. Balanzategui opened her day with a birdie on the par-4, 357-yard first hole and finished the…