May 3, 2011
SDSU Women's Golf NCAA Regional Release in PDF Format
The San Diego State women's golf team earned its second consecutive NCAA regional bid, as the Aztecs are one of 72 schools that will compete at one of three tournament sites, May 5-7. The Aztecs, who are making back-to-back trips to the NCAA regionals for the first time in program history, are seeded No. 16 among the 24 teams headed to the west regional in Auburn, Wash., at the par-72, 6,266-yard Washington National Golf Course.
SDSU is one of four Mountain West Conference schools that will be represented in the Pacific Northwest this week, as Brigham Young, New Mexico and Colorado State's Brianna Espinoza will also make the trip. Fellow league member UNLV made the field in the central regional in Notre Dame, Ind., and conference champion TCU heads to the east regional in Daytona Beach, Fla.
The Aztecs will play 18 holes each of the three days (54 total) with a practice round on Wednesday. SDSU will be paired with BYU and New Mexico for the first two rounds, teeing off Thursday from the 10th hole at 12:30 p.m. PT and beginning from the first hole at 8 a.m. on Friday. The top eight squads and the low two individuals not on those teams from each regional will advance to the NCAA national championships at the Traditions Club in Bryan, Texas, May 17-20.
San Diego State made its first NCAA regional appearance since 2004 last season, when the Aztecs played in Columbus, Ind., finishing 13th. This is the program's fifth trip to regionals and it marks the eighth time SDSU has sent at least one golfer to the regional round since it first began in 1993. The Aztecs will be seeking their first-ever trip as a team to the national championships.
Live scoring will be available for all three days on goaztecs.com, as well as golfstat.com.
Aztec Line-Up For This Week
Second-year SDSU head coach Emilee Klein will bring the same starting line-up that she used at the team's most recent outing, the 2011 MWC championships. Senior Stephanie Arcala (Oceanside, Calif.), junior Malin Enarsson (Gothenburg, Sweden) and sophomores Gina Clark (Murrieta, Calif.) and Christine Wong (Richmond, B.C.) all played in the regional last year, while sophomore transfer Alessia Knight (Bologna, Italy) will be making her NCAA debut.
Enarsson was the Aztecs' top finisher in 2010, tying for 12th place with a 14-over 230 and falling just one stroke short of forcing a playoff for an individual berth to the national championships. Wong tied for 35th, followed by Clark (t-56th), Arcala (t-92nd) and current senior Samantha Roberts (105th).
The Competition
San Diego State is one of 16 teams in the NCAA West Regional field ranked in the top 50 nationally by golfstat.com. Of those 16 schools, seven are in the top 20, including No. 1 USC, No. 6 Virginia, No. 7 Arizona, No. 12 Georgia, No. 13 Tennessee, No. 19 Iowa State and No. 20 Pepperdine.
The Aztecs are seeded 16th in a regional for the second consecutive campaign and are ranked 44th nationally by Golfweek and 48th in golfstat.com. The team was rated slightly higher by both outlets (No. 45/46) a year ago at this time.
San Diego State has played in at least one tournament earlier this season against 14 of the other 23 schools in the west regional.
A Look At The Course
The host site of the 2011 NCAA Women's Golf West Regional is the par-72, 6,266-yard Washington National Golf Course, located in Auburn, Wash., just 35 miles southeast of downtown Seattle.
Washington National opened for play in August 2000, and was designed by former PGA golfer John Fought. It is the home course for both University of Washington golf programs and previously served as the site of the women's NCAA west regional in 2006, as well as the national championships in 2002. It was rated as the fifth-most challenging course in the state of Washington by the USGA in 2004-05, and played host to a men's NCAA regional last season.
San Diego State has never competed at Washington National and has not played in the state of Washington at least since the 1999-2000 campaign.
SDSU In The NCAA Regionals
The Aztecs are making their second consecutive trip to the NCAA regionals, but only their second overall since 2004, when the team tied for 15th in Stanford, Calif. SDSU has also earned team bids in 1999 (18th) and 2001 (15th) and had an individual participate in 1996, 1997 and 2000.
This is the sixth time the Aztecs are participating in the West Regional, after traveling to the Central Regional in 2010 and participating in the East in 2001. Including this season, the program will have competed in eight different cities and seven different states in its NCAA regional history.
Individually, Heather MacRae boasts SDSU's best individual finish when she tied for 11th place with a 220 in 2004, while current junior Malin Enarsson is second with her 12th-place performance a year ago.
Aztec head coach Emilee Klein will be making her fourth straight trip to the tournament after directing Central Florida to regionals in 2008 and 2009.
Rewind: SDSU At 2010 NCAA Central Regional
Sophomore Malin Enarsson just barely missed advancing to the national championships, as she was edged by a single stroke for the final individual berth at the 2010 NCAA Central Regional in Columbus, Ind. Enarsson tied for 12th place at 14-over 230, but Denver's Kimberly Kim, who was ranked 36th nationally, claimed the second and final spot with a 13-over 229 at the par-72, 6,417-yard Otter Creek Golf Club.
Enarsson was at 5-over par through 14 holes of the final round with Kim already in the clubhouse with a 75. After stringing together eight consecutive pars, Enarsson bogeyed each of the final four holes to post an 81, falling one stroke short of forcing a playoff with Kim. Despite the end result, Enarsson's 12th-place performance was the second best in the school's six all-time NCAA regional appearances.
As a team, San Diego State took a respectable 13th out of 24 in its first trip to regionals in six years. The Aztecs had a final round 319 to complete their season at 90-over 954, two strokes in back of Mississippi, which finished 12th with a 952. SDSU entered the week ranked 46th nationally and placed above No. 28 Louisville (14th), No. 40 Northwestern (15th) and No. 42 Notre Dame (17th).
SDSU's Christine Wong moved from 94th after the first 18 holes, all the way into 35th on the final day with a 20-over 236. Classmate Gina Clark tied for 56th place, followed by Stephanie Arcala (92nd) and Samantha Roberts (105th).
Wong, Arcala Earn All-Conference Honors
San Diego State senior Stephanie Arcala and sophomore Christine Wong were both named to the Mountain West all-conference women's golf team at the conclusion of the 2011 league championships in Arizona last month.
Wong, who was the conference freshman of the year last season, becomes the first Aztec to be named a two-time all-MWC selection, while it is the first such award for Arcala.
SDSU and TCU were the only two schools to have more than one honoree on the eight-golfer squad.
Last Time Out: Aztecs Take Fifth At MWC Tourney
San Diego State placed fifth for the second consecutive season at the Mountain West Conference championships, which took place April 14-16, at the Wigwam Golf Course in Litchfield Park, Ariz.
The Aztecs fired 23-over 887, which was three strokes more than fourth-place New Mexico, but tied as the second-best total in a conference tournament in program history.
SDSU sophomore Gina Clark recorded the squad's top finish of the MWC championships in 11th with a 4-over 220, highlighted by the team's only sub-par round of the week with her final-round 71, highlighted by three birdies and only two bogeys. A year ago, she placed 29th on the individual leaderboard with a 29-over 245.
Christine Wong and Alessia Knight both tied for 17th place at 7-over 223, while junior Malin Enarsson and senior Stephanie Arcala were separated by a single stroke, coming in 20th and 22nd, respectively.
TCU erased a three-stroke deficit on the final day with the best round by any team in the tournament to claim its second MWC title and first since 2007. UNLV's Therese Koelbaek, who was voted the league's player of the year, earned medalist honors by four strokes with a 7-under 209.
Aztec 10-11 Highlights
The San Diego State women's golf team has produced a mixed bag of results thus far in 2010-11.
The Aztecs have won one tournament, the 12-team Gold Rush in Yorba Linda, Calif., in mid-February, and have placed in the top five in three other events. On the other hand, SDSU finished last at its lone home outing, the Battle at Rancho Bernardo, took 11th at the Arizona State PING Invite and were 13th of 17 squads at the final fall tournament, although they were competing without Christine Wong in Las Vegas.
As a testament to their strength of schedule, however, the Aztecs boast the third-highest ranking among MWC schools. Individually, Wong has the seventh-best stroke average in the MWC at 75.46, and has finished in the top 20 on five occasions. Junior Malin Enarsson placed third twice, sophomore Gina Clark has carded SDSU's best stroke average of the spring (75.33) and senior Stephanie Arcala has been the team's most consistent golfer, highlighted by a fourth-place performance at The Gold Rush.
Up Next
The top eight teams and the low two individuals not on one of those teams will advance out of the NCAA West Regional to the national championships, scheduled for May 18-21, at the Traditions Club in Bryan, Texas, May 17-20.
Twenty-four total teams and six individuals will play 72 holes of stroke play over the four-day period to determine both the team and individual national championships.
SDSU has previously sent an individual to the NCAA national tournament, but has never qualified as a team.
Head Coach Emilee Klein
Head coach and 1996 Women's British Open champion Emilee Klein is in her second season at San Diego State. 
Klein's first campaign was a huge success, as the Aztecs won back-to-back tournaments and reached the NCAA regionals for the first time in six years. Canadian Christine Wong was named an all-conference selection and the MWC Freshman of the Year, after twice earning medalist honors.
Prior to being hired at SDSU in July 2009, she starred on the LPGA Tour for 11 seasons (1995-2005), competing in over 300 tournaments and earning more than $3.1 million in prize money. She won three events during her professional career, including the 1996 Weetabix Women's British Open, the 1996 Ping Welch's Championship and the 2001 Michelob Light Classic.
After retiring from the LPGA Tour, Klein took over as head women's golf coach at the University of Central Florida in Orlando, Fla. Under her direction, she led the Knights to back-to-back NCAA regional appearances in 2008 and 2009.
She is assisted by former University of Miami Hurricane, Tiffany Prats, who is in her second year with the Aztecs.