A place in the NCAA Championships eluded the Wildcats for the 10th straight year.
No. 37 Northwestern finished 15th in the NCAA Central Regionals held in Columbus, Ind., from Thursday to Saturday. Of the 24 teams competing, the top eight advanced to nationals.
“We all wanted to go to nationals,” freshman Lauren Weaver said. “There’s only been one other team in Northwestern golf history that has made it. We wanted to be the next team to do that.”
The Cats entered the tournament as the 13th seed, having beaten several higher-ranked teams-including New Mexico, Florida State, Louisville and Kent State-throughout the season. But NU could not recreate its earlier success, with all of the teams it had beaten previously, except for Louisville, earning higher seeds and berths in the national championships.
“We’ve certainly competed and been competitive with teams like Kent State and Oregon all year,” coach Emily Fletcher said. “We just got off to a really slow start. Our ball striking wasn’t terribly bad, but the rough was really, really high around the greens, and our short game cost us the tougher shots. A little bit of lack of confidence in the short game is what it came down to.”
A slow start consigned the Cats to 18th place after the opening round. Though they climbed to 15th in the second round, a tournament-low 26-over 314 score in the final round couldn’t lift NU any higher in the standings.
“We just got off to a slow start the first day and were never able to dig out of that hole,” Fletcher said.
She added the weather was tough in the second round, especially given the rainy conditions Friday.
Sophomore Alex Lederhausen finished first on NU’s scorecard for the second time this season with a 21-over 237, while Weaver, who led the team in five tournaments, finished one stroke behind. Juniors Kelsey Lindenschmidt and Rebecca Lederhausen and sophomore Kylie Fuller rounded out the scorecard.
“We have a lot of work to do,” Weaver said. “If we played to our potential at regionals, we would’ve been really close to making it. All we have to do is work harder and try for next year.”
Though it was NU’s first trip to Regionals since 2007, Rebecca Lederhausen said the team’s standards are rising.
“We belong at regionals,” she said. “Now that we’ve been there, our goal is to take it a step further and go to nationals.”
The regional championships capped a strong campaign for the Cats. Fletcher pointed to the even-par round in the Bryan National Collegiate, Fuller’s career-best 3-under 69 score in the second round of the Big Ten Championships and Weaver’s selection in the Second Team All-Big Ten as some of the team’s highlights this season.
“It’s been more a season of steady improvement,” Fletcher said. “We have everyone returning next season and our freshman Devon Brown in the fall, who is a very accomplished player. So absolutely you will see us be even better next year.”
Weaver, who has been the Cats’ top performer, finished the season with the team’s best scoring average, 75.73. The freshman said she enjoyed her first season with the team despite not making it to the NCAA tournament.
“Especially when we played well, I wouldn’t trade it for anything,” Weaver said. “I’m really excited to come back next year, do it again.”
