NCAA Championships - Albuquerque Regional Central
ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. – The second women's golfer in Santa Clara history to qualify for the NCAA Women's Golf Championship, junior Kristin Le finished the Albuquerque Regional at 13-over 229, missing the cut to advance to the Championship final.
Le scored a final round 5-over 77 on the 6,637-yard, par-72 UNM Championship Course and needed to finish the event among the three lowest-scoring individuals. She placed behind Cal State Fullerton's Martina Edberg, Gonzaga's Bianca Pagdanganan and Campbell's Nadine White. Players from teams that didn't finish among the top-six were eligible to advance as an individual, which White did.
Stanford, ranked No. 1 in the country, won the team title to advance along with Duke, Pepperdine, USC, Cal and Miami. Stanford's Albane Valenzuela was the individual medalist at 6-under 210.
"Kristin played well today," head coach Krystal Kelly said. "Conditions were really difficult with a 20 degree drop in temperature and stronger winds."
Le finished the tournament tied for 57th place overall. Her only birdie of the day came on the par-5 18th hole. "She was able to get on the green in two and made birdie," Kelly said. "The other par-5 we wanted to go for played longer." Le recorded one of her 12 pars on that hole. The game plan was to be aggressive on the par-5s with with strokes to make up.
Le joined Miki Ueoka, who qualified for a regional tournament in 2009, as the only players in program history to participate in the NCAA Women's Golf Championships.
"Overall it was a great experience for Kristin," Kelly noted. "She had an amazing season and I'm looking forward to watching her next year."
Connect with the Broncos on Social Media
