DENTON, Texas (May 2, 2021) – In 2019, the last time Oklahoma Christian's women's golf team made the field for the Division II West Super Regional, the Eagles surprised a lot of people outside the program by finishing high enough in the tournament to advance in the NCAA postseason.
This time around, with three returning starters from that team and a couple of precocious freshmen, the Eagles will be among the favorites to earn one of the three coveted slots from the Super Regional – which will begin a three-day run on Monday at Wildhorse Golf Club at Robson Ranch – into the NCAA Division II Championship.
With the No. 3 seed in the Super Region, OC will be grouped with top-seeded Dallas Baptist (Texas) and No. 2 seed Texas A&M-Commerce for the tournament's first two rounds. The Eagles will tee off starting at 8:40 a.m. off hole No. 1. The Eagles should be quite familiar with the course, having played tournaments there last fall and in fall 2019.
The Eagles previously qualified for the NCAA postseason as a team in 2016 and 2019. This year's regionals were limited to nine teams instead of the usual 12 due to the COVID-19 pandemic, which also resulted in the cancellation of the 2020 NCAA postseason.
The top three teams in each of four Super Regional tournaments, along with the top three individuals not with a qualifying team, will qualify for the Division II Championship, set to be played May 11-15 at TPC Michigan in Dearborn, Mich.
OC has three players with postseason experience. Senior
Abigail Rigsby of Courtenay, British Columbia, junior
Shaley Goad of Wheeler, Texas, and sophomore
Alexandria Bennett of Plano, Texas, all started for the Eagles in 2019, when they took fourth in a Super Regional in Amarillo, Texas, to advance to the national tournament in Palm Beach Gardens, Fla.
Rigsby also made the NCAA postseason in 2017 as an individual, qualifying for the Division II Championship with a dramatic final-day rally at the Super Regional in Wichita Falls, Texas.
This season, Rigsby was a first-team All-Lone Star Conference selection, while Bennett received second-team honors. Goad made the LSC's All-Academic team.
Freshmen
Wilma Merenmies of Jyvaskyla, Finland, and
Camilla Jarvela of Espoo, Finland, round out the Eagles' starting lineup.
After DBU, TAMUC and OC, the rest of the Super Regional field, in seed order, will consist St. Mary's (Texas), West Texas A&M, Arkansas-Fort Smith, Pacific West Conference champion Point Loma Nazarene (Calif.), Rocky Mountain Athletic Conference champion Westminster (Utah) and Great Northwest Athletic Conference champion Western Washington.
No. 1-ranked Dallas Baptist, the home team and the LSC champion, has won seven tournaments this season and is the prohibitive favorite. OC is 2-1 head-to-head this season against both TAMUC and St. Mary's, 2-0 against Arkansas-Fort Smith, 3-0 against West Texas A&M and 1-0 against Western Washington and Westminster. The Eagles are 0-2 against DBU and 0-1 against Point Loma Nazarene.
OC won one tournament this spring and finished second in two others before a fourth-place finish (behind Dallas Baptist, TAMUC and St. Mary's) in the LSC Championship at Texas Rangers Golf Club in Arlington, Texas. Over 12 rounds this spring, the Eagles have posted an average team score of 303.75 per round, which ranks eighth in Division II.
Individuals who will compete in the Super Regional field will be Anahi Servin of Academy of Art (Calif.), Faith Kilgore of Colorado Christian, Juanita Gomez of Midwestern State (Texas) and Claire Shubin of Domincan (Calif.).
