Michigan State in 19th Place After Second Round of NCAA Championships

Scottsdale, Ariz. (WILX) - Playing in temperatures near 100 degrees, Michigan State’s women’s golf team shot a 6-over par 294 and is in 19th place among 30 teams after the second round of the NCAA Championships, being played on the par-72, 6,399-yard Grayhawk Golf Course.

The Spartans are in 19th place with a two-day total of 11-over par 587

The NCAA Championship features 54 holes of stroke play qualifying and then the top 15 teams and nine individuals (not on advancing teams) will play a final 18 holes to determine the individual champion and the top eight teams will advance to match play.  On Tuesday, May 23, there will be 36 holes of match play and then the match play championship will take place Wednesday, May 24.

Wake Forest leads the field at 17-under par 559, two shots ahead of Stanford (15-under par 561). South Carolina is in third place (14-under par 562), with Texas in fourth at 8-under par 568 and Oklahoma State and Texas A&M are tied for fifth place at 5-under par 571.

“I think maybe a round under par would be nice,” Head Coach Stacy Slobodnik-Stoll said. “I think we’re maybe going to need that tomorrow.  It seems like there were some low scores out there today. The afternoon was perfect conditions, not a lot of wind, beautiful sunshine, a little heat but not bad. I think we’ve got to have a few more putts to fall, concentrate on really looking at where the pins are tomorrow and getting something real close.”

Sophomore Katie Lu is the leader for Michigan State. She shot her second-straight round of even-par 72 and is tied for 38th place at even-par 144. Lu is tied for third in the field with 28 pars through two rounds

Sophomore Brooke Biermann is tied for 69th place at 3-over par 147 (73-74) after a 2-over par 74 on Saturday. She finished her round with two birdies and four bogies.

Junior Valentina Rossi shot a 1-over par 73 and is tied for 77th place at 4-over par 148 (75-73). Rossi had five birdies, including four on the front nine, and six bogies.

Sophomore Shannon Kennedy posted her second-straight round of 3-over par 75 and is tied for 102nd place at 6-over par 150.

Junior Leila Raines struggled on Saturday, finishing with a 6-over par 78 and is tied for 112th place at 9-over par 151 (73-78).

The Spartans tee off on Sunday at 11:42 a.m. PT (2:42 p.m. ET), playing alongside Ole Miss and TCU.

Duke is in 15th place at 8-over par 584 and four teams, including the Spartans, are within three shots of making the cut, while 10 teams are within seven shots of the cut mark.

“The message is no-holds-barred tomorrow,” Slobodnik-Stoll said. “We want to make the top-15 and we know we’ve got to play just a little bit better to do that. There’s pressure on everyone tomorrow. Everyone wants to make it, everyone wants to make sure they’re in the top-15. For us, we’ve been playing so well as of late, they have a lot of confidence in what they’re doing and most importantly, having fun and be proud of what we’ve done thus far and let’s finish it off with another round on Monday.”

Subscribe to our News 10 newsletter and receive the latest local news and weather straight to your email every morning.

Copyright 2023 WILX. All rights reserved.