Yellowjacket Women’s Golf Opens First NCAA Super Regional Monday

BILLINGS, Mont. – The Montana State Billings women’s golf team begins its first NCAA Super Regional Monday at Augustana College in Sioux Falls, S.D.  The Yellowjackets are one of nine teams that will compete at the Westward Ho Country Club.  The tournament begins Monday and will run through Wednesday (May 4-6) with one 18-hole round each day.

“The team is really looking forward to playing in the Super Regional tomorrow,” head coach Kevin Woodin said.  “It is really special when you are the first team at a school to accomplish something like that and our players should be very proud of that.”

The Yellowjackets, seeded eighth in the tournament, join fellow Rocky Mountain Athletic Conference teams in Fort Hays State (seeded fourth), Mesa State (seeded fifth) and Augustana (seeded sixth).  Upper Iowa is the top seed in the Super Regional, followed by Concordia-Saint Paul (Minn.), Winona State is seeded seventh and Southwest Minnesota is seeded ninth.

Four individuals from non-competing teams also qualified, including; Chelsey Ouren of Minnesota State Moorehead, Sara Wissing of Nebraska-Kearney, Jenny Ives of RMAC member Adams State and Kelsee Katsampes of Wayne State (Neb.).

The Westward Ho Country Club is ranked as one of the top golf courses in the Upper Midwest and has been the site of numerous golf tournaments in its 50-year history.  The course is located on both sides of the Big Sioux River, proving a challenging course as well as amazing scenery.  It is a 6,010-yard, par 72 championship course.

Leading the way for the Yellowjackets this season is freshman Kalli Stanhope who leads the team with an 80.71 stroke average.  She was named first team all-conference and earned RMAC Golfer of the Week honors this season.  Second on the team in stroke average is Amy Nordeen at an 82.88 clip.  She also was a first team all-conference selection this year.  Lindsey Erickson (84.06) was a third team all-conference selection as well.

As a team, the Yellowjackets finished the season second in the RMAC, just one point behind Fort Hays State.  MSUB and Fort Hays entered the RMAC Championship tied for first and FHSU finished second in the tournament and MSUB finished third.  Non-conference member and top-ranked, Central Region member, Upper Iowa, won the fourth RMAC tournament which also doubled as the conference tournament.  For RMAC purposes, Fort Hays State won the conference championship.  The Yellowjackets were picked preseason ninth in the RMAC out of 10 schools that sponsor women’s golf.

“At the RMAC Championships, each player’s score counted at least one day and anytime you can get a scoring round coming from all five of your players that gives you an advantage overall,” Woodin added.  “The competition will be excellent and we are ready to go and we will give it our best.”

Fans can access live stats and tournament information by clicking on the NCAA Women’s Golf logo on the front page of www.msubillings.edu/athletics or click on the same logo on the women’s golf page. 

“We have had some good practices this week so I am hoping we will play well,” Woodin added.  “The course is a very good one and it represents a tremendous challenge for our players.  The great thing about our team is we are starting to get more balance than we had earlier in the year.