Yellowjacket Women’s Golf Heads to Minnesota for NCAA Central Regional

BILLINGS, Mont. – The Montana State Billings women’s golf team heads to its second consecutive NCAA Central Super Regional this weekend in Lake City, Minnesota, May 2-4.  The Jackets won the Rocky Mountain Athletic Conference Tournament a week ago and are seeded seventh in the regional tournament.

“We are very excited about this opportunity to play at the NCAA Super Regional,” first year head coach Shawn O’Brien said. “The Jewell is a great golf course and the women will do well.  It is always a good feeling when you go into a tournament playing your best golf as we are right now.”

The 54-hole super regional will be played beginning Sunday and running through Tuesday at The Jewell Golf Course hosted by Minnesota State Mankato. The nine team field includes the top-seeded Mavericks of MSU Mankato, followed by Augustana College (SD), RMAC tournament runner-up Western New Mexico, Concordia-St. Paul and RMAC regular season champion Mesa State is fifth.  Southwest Minnesota State is sixth, followed by MSUB, Winona State and Upper Iowa round out the nine-team field.

The top three teams advance to the NCAA Championship, May 12-15 at Longbow Golf Club in Mesa, Ariz.  In addition, the top three individuals from non-advancing teams also earn berths to the NCAA Championships.  The NCAA Championships consists of 72-holes.

Last season, the Yellowjackets finished ninth at the NCAA Central Super Regional in Sioux Falls, SD.  Then-freshman, Kalli Stanhope, finished tied for seventh at the super regional and advanced to the NCAA Championships as an individual where she finished tied for 70th at the Findlay Country Club in Findlay, Ohio.

The seven-seed is the highest seed in school history for the Yellowjacket women’s golf team.  MSUB was seeded eighth heading into last year’s super regional. 

This season, the Yellowjackets continued where they left off last year as they were the runner-up during the RMAC regular season, finishing second to Mesa State in the three RMAC tournaments prior to the championship.  MSUB is playing its best golf of the season now as it won the RMAC Tournament by six strokes over Western New Mexico and 10 strokes over Mesa State last week in Phoenix, Ariz.  The Jackets finished just one point shy of tying Mesa State for the conference regular season crown.

For their efforts, four Yellowjackets were named to the all-conference team.  Stanhope became a two-time first team selection, while senior Amy Nordeen and sophomore Erin Heaney were second team selections and freshman Liz Tikriti was a third team selection.  In addition, O’Brien, was named RMAC Coach of the Year.

At the RMAC Championship, the Jackets led both rounds and fired their team-low 36-hole score (638) and team low-round score (318) of the season.  In addition, Nordeen fired the team-low round of 75 for the season.