SAN DIEGO -- The 47th-ranked San Diego State women's golf team begins its quest for postseason glory when it travels to the Pacific Northwest to compete in the NCAA Cle Elum Regional, May 6-8, at Suncadia Resort in Cle Elum, Wash.
The Aztecs, who are making their sixth consecutive regional appearance and ninth in the last 10 years, will be among the field vying for a spot in the NCAA championship series, scheduled for May 17-22 in Fayetteville, Ark.
SDSU earned the 12th seed out of 18 teams in the Cle Elum Regional, securing one of 27 automatic bids to the NCAA tournament after winning its second Mountain West Championship on April 17. A total of 72 NCAA Division I schools received invitations to play in one of four regionals that will be held concurrently next week in Cle Elum, Wash. (Washington); Norman, Okla. (Oklahoma); East Lansing, Mich. (Michigan State) and Opelika, Ala. (Auburn).
Joining the Aztecs on the par-72, 6,306-yard Tumble Creek Club at Suncadia will be 17 other teams, including 13 opponents ranked in the top 50, along with six individual competitors (96 golfers overall). The top six squads and the three highest finishing individuals not on those teams will move on to nationals from each of the four regionals.
The field will complete 18 holes (54 total) of stroke play each of the three days following a practice round on Sunday, May 5. SDSU will tee off with Old Dominion and Iowa State for Monday's opening round, which is set to get underway at 9:20 a.m. PT on hole No. 10, while pairings for Tuesday and Wednesday will be based on team scores.
Live hole-by-hole results courtesy of Golfstat will be available for all three rounds on GoAztecs.com.
Aztec Regional Lineup
Eighth-year San Diego State head coach Leslie Spalding will accompany five golfers to the Evergreen State, led by 2019 first-team all-Mountain West honoree Gioia Carpinelli (Boppelsen, Switzerland), along with second-team all-conference selections Sara Kjellker (Hollviken, Sweden) and Fernanda Escauriza (Asunción, Paraguay), as well as Kitty Tam (Hong Kong, China) and Daniela Anastasi (La Jolla, Calif.).
Kjellker (55th, +7) and Carpinelli (T-79th, +14) are the lone returners from last season's regional squad, as SDSU tied for seventh out of 18 schools at TPC Harding Park in San Francisco, missing out on a potential sudden-death playoff for the regional's final national championship slot by just one stroke . On the other hand, Escauriza is back in the fold after tying for 45th as a freshman at the Lubbock Regional in 2017, while Tam and Anastasi are first-time participants.
Carpinelli, who is currently ranked 48th in the nation by Golfstat, leads the Aztecs with a 73.64 scoring average, followed closely by Kjellker (73.89), who checks in at No. 127. Carpinelli, Kjellker and Escauriza are the only three golfers who have competed in all 10 stroke-play events for SDSU this season.
SDSU At NCAA Regionals
The Aztecs will embark on their sixth straight trip to NCAA regionals and 12th overall as a team. SDSU earned team bids in 1999 (19th), 2001 (15th), 2004 (15th), 2010 (t-15th), 2011 (17th), 2012 (t-20th), 2014 (t-21st), 2015 (11th), 2016 (12th), 2017 (11th) and 2018 (T-7th). The program was also represented by individual golfers in 1996, 1997, 2000 and 2013.
This week marks the eighth time the Aztecs are participating in a western-based regional as a team, following the 1999, 2004, 2011, 2014, 2015, 2016 and 2018 squads. SDSU has visited the Evergreen State for regional play on two previous occasions, finishing 17th out of 24 schools in 2011 at Washington National Golf Club in Auburn, Wash., before tying for 21st out of 24 squads at Tumble Creek Club in 2014. Including this season, SDSU will have played in 14 different cities and 10 different states in its NCAA regional history.
Heather MacRae boasts the Aztecs' best individual regional finish when she tied for 11th place at Stanford in 2004; Malin Enarsson and Mila Chaves registered 12th-place performances in 2010 and 2018, respectively; Sirene Blair sits in fourth with an 17th-place effort in 2016, while Chaves ranks fourth after tying for 18th in 2016.
The Competition
The Aztecs are one of 13 teams in the Cle Elum Regional ranked among the top 50 in the latest Golfstat rankings released April 30. Of those squads, eight reside in the top 30, including No. 1 USC, followed by Arkansas (8), South Carolina (9), Northwestern (16), Washington (19), Miami (23), Oregon (26) and San José State (26).
The Aztecs own a 14-18 record in head-to-head results against 10 of their 17 regional foes during the 2018-19 campaign, maintaining the upper hand against New Mexico State (3-0), Sacramento State (3-0) and Oregon State (1-0) while splitting four encounters vs. San José State (2-2).
A Look At The Course
The host site of the 2019 NCAA Women's Golf West Regional is the par-72, 6,306 yard Tumble Creek Club at Suncadia Resort in Cle Elum, Wash., located some 80 miles east of Seattle in the Cascade Mountains.
Nestled amongst rolling hills and sun-drenched meadows with views of soaring peaks, Tumble Creek was designed by Tom Doak, considered one of the finest living golf course architects in the world.
The Tumble Creek layout was modeled after the great parkland style golf clubs of the Northeast with the signature natural element to Doak's design philosophy, taking great care to emphasize the natural assets of the land.
The course is lined with native Douglass Fir and Ponderosa Pine trees and flows with the rolling mountain topography. Tumble Creek Club includes beautifully manicured bent grass fairways, 100 natural edge bunkers and green shapes with significant movement, designed to perfectly blend into the Northwest landscape. The strategy of the course lends to birdie and bogey opportunities with variety in length and difficulty of holes.
In addition to three golf courses, the Suncadia Resort features bicycling and hiking trails, summer boating, winter ice skating facilities, as well as a swim and fitness center and an outdoor amphitheater.
Just A Chip Shot Away
The top six teams and the three highest finishing individuals not on one of those squads will advance out of the NCAA Cle Elum Regional to the national championships, slated for May 17-22 in Fayetteville, Ark.
A total of 24 teams and 12 individuals will complete 54 holes of stroke play over a three-day span at the Blessings Golf Club, with the top 15 squads and nine highest placing individuals advancing to a fourth round of stroke play, which will determine the top eight schools for match play competition, as well as the 72-hole stroke play individual champion.
The top eight teams after 72 holes of play will be placed into a bracket with the No. 1 seed playing the No. 8 seed, the No. 2 seed playing the No. 7 seed, the No. 3 seed playing the No. 6 seed and the No. 4 seed playing the No. 5 seed in match play.
Women's Golf Readies for NCAA Cle Elum Regional
