The Kansas women’s golf team finished sixth of 12 teams at the NCAA Cle Elum Regional in Washington state on Wednesday.
The Jayhawks outperformed their No. 9 seed, but fell one place short of what they would have needed to make their first NCAA Championship in 10 years.
“I am really proud of the way we fought today,” KU coach Lindsay Kuhle said in a press release Wednesday evening. “It was another difficult day out there with the weather and course conditions. To finish that close and be the nine seed just shows how great this team is and how competitive we are. I am proud of the fight we put up all week.”
Junior Lily Hirst, who shot one of KU’s best postseason rounds ever with a 4-under 68 on Monday, also missed out on qualifying as an individual. The low scorer not from one of the five qualifying teams — Stanford, Duke, Virginia, Arizona State and San Jose State — ended up being Long Beach State’s Jasmine Leovao, who finished in eighth place with a 2-over 218. Hirst ended up shooting 5-over at 221 and tying for 13th after slipping to 76 and 77 in her second and third rounds.
Hirst was still the top finisher for KU, which despite entering the day three strokes out of fifth place ended its run 35-over, 12 strokes behind San Jose State.
It was the second straight appearance in an NCAA regional for the Jayhawks.
“We continue to build and improve every year towards our goal of making the National Championship,” Kuhle said in the release.
Stanford won the regional by an 18-stroke margin, as it shot 1-under as a team; four of the top five golfers came from the Cardinal.
