The three-day, 54-hole regional features 12 teams (in order of seed): No. 3 Florida State, No. 9 USC, No. 15 TCU, No. 22 Vanderbilt, No. 28 Kansas State, No. 34 Georgia Southern, No. 40 Pepperdine, No. 46 Louisville, No. 54 Miami, No. 60 Western Kentucky, No. 163 Morehead State and No. 223 Fairleigh Dickinson. Six individuals will also compete.
The top five teams, and top individual on a non-advancing team, from each of the six regionals will advance to the NCAA Golf Championships in Carlsbad, Calif., May 16-21. The other regionals are being played in Charlottesville, Va. (Birdwood Golf Course), Columbus, Ohio (OSU Golf Club – Scarlet Course), Golf Canyon, Ariz. (Superstition Mountain Golf and Country Club), Lubbock, Texas (The Rawls Course) and Norman, Okla. (Jimmie Austin OU Golf Club).
TOURNAMENT INFO
- NCAA Lexington Regional (May 5-7)
- Keene Trace Golf Club (Nicholasville, Ky.) Par 72, 6,322 Yards
- Monday, May 5 (18 holes): WKU tees off at 8:55 a.m. ET/7:55 a.m. CT off #10
- Tuesday, May 6 (18 holes): Tee times are from 8-9:50 a.m. ET/7-8:50 a.m. CT
- Wednesday, May 7 (18 holes): Tee times are from 8-9:50 a.m. ET/7-8:50 a.m. CT
- Live Scoring: https://scoreboard.clippd.com/tournaments/236565/scoring/team
ABOUT THE LADY TOPS
- WKU's lineup will be Sydney Hackett, Catie Craig, Kaylee Dwyer, Averi Cline and Julia Zigrossi. Nina McMurtrey will be the alternate.
- WKU won four tournaments this season, including the Conference USA Championships. It was the first conference championship in the 48-year history of the program. The Lady Tops also won the Reynolds Lake Oconee Invitational, the UNF Collegiate and the Tennessee Spring Challenge.
- WKU is one of 10 schools with 107 wins and 26 or fewer losses (107-26-1) joining No. 2 Arkansas, No. 3 Florida State, No. 5 Oregon, No. 6 Texas, No. 8 Arizona State, No. 9 USC, No. 21 Florida, Campbell and Illinois State.
- Three Lady Tops won a tournament as an individual this season – Catie Craig (Cardinal Cup), Kaylee Dwyer (Tennessee Spring Challenge) and Sydney Hackett (CUSA Championships). Only three Power Four schools – No. 1 Stanford, No. 4 South Carolina and No. 25 Duke – had at least three individuals win a tournament this season.
- WKU posted head-to-head wins over several teams in the Lexington Regional this season: an 11-stroke victory over Vanderbilt at the Tennessee Spring Challenge; a nine-shot triumph over Georgia Southern at the Boilermaker Classic in the fall; and a two-shot margin over Louisville in their home tournament, the Cardinal Cup, in the fall. The Lady Tops also had impressive victories over Florida (six shots at the Reynolds Lake Oconee Invitational) and Tennessee (22 shots at the Tennessee Spring Challenge).
- WKU featured a league-best four on the All-Conference USA teams, which were released on Friday. Sydney Hackett and Catie Craig were named first team, while Averi Cline and Kaylee Dwyer were named second team.
- Adam Gary was named CUSA Coach of the Year for the second straight season. Gary led the Lady Tops to four wins, its first conference championship in program history, and a program-best ranking of No. 57 earlier this season.
- Hackett also earned the Conference's Most Improved Golfer of the Year Award, improving her stroke average by nearly two-and-a-half shots per round this season to 72.78. In addition to her Conference USA Championship, Hackett had six Top 4 finishes in 11 events, seven Top 10s and eight Top 20s. The 2023 CUSA Freshman of the Year earned her second career All-Conference honor.
- Craig has been WKU's rock for the last three seasons and earned her second consecutive first team All-CUSA honor. She is on pace to set the school record for career scoring average, entering the NCAA Regionals at 73.61 over 114 career rounds. The NCAA Regional will be her 40th event at WKU. In 39 events to date, she has five wins (one shy of Mary Joiner's school record), 16 Top 5s, 21 Top 10s and has been WKU's top finisher 19 times. This will mark Craig's third career regional appearance, as she also competed in the Athens Regional in 2023 and the East Lansing Regional in 2024.
- Dwyer was named second team All-CUSA after an incredible freshman season for the Lady Tops. In addition to her victory at the Tennessee Spring Challenge, she was named CUSA Golfer of the Week two times. She also earned a fourth-place finish at the Reynolds Lake Oconee Invitational to begin the spring.
- Cline was named second team All-CUSA for the first time in her career. She has played in all 32 rounds to date and has a 75.00 scoring average this season. She has two Top 10s – a tie for second at the Lady Paladin Invitational and an eighth-place tie at the UNF Collegiate.
- Julia Zigrossi rounds out WKU's lineup. A transfer from James Madison, Zigrossi has posted four straight Top 20s to round out the spring, including a tie for 11th at the Tennessee Spring Challenge.
