Fassi, Arkansas win NCAA regional titles
AUSTIN, Texas — The 2018 Arkansas women’s golf team won its first NCAA Regional championship in program history Wednesday led by Maria Fassi as the tournament’s individual medalist.
Coach Shauna Taylor’s Razorbacks only needed a top-six finish at the three-day Austin Regional to advance to the 2018 NCAA Division I Women’s Golf Championships May
18-23 at the Karsten Creek Golf Club in Stillwater, Okla. The team already won Arkansas’ first SEC team championship in any women’s sport other than cross country, indoor and outdoor track.
Paced by Fassi’s scores of 69, 70 and 69 on Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday, respectively, for an 8-under -par
208, the Razorbacks as a team shot an 838, 26-under par, 15 strokes better than runner-up host team Texas.
Following Fassi, Razorbacks Dylan Kim placed third with Kaylee Benton and Alana Uriell tied for fourth and Cara Gorlei 38th.
Kim shot 79-68-73 for a
5-under 211. Both finishing four under at 212, Benton shot 7268-68, while Uriell shot 78-6569. Gorlei shot 73-75-74 for 222. “We came here on a mission,” Taylor said Thursday in Austin. “We missed making it to Nationals as a team last year, and this group has done a fantastic job this year. This is just a part of the journey and a part of the process. Now that we’ve taken care of this one, we will go back and take finals and start preparing for Karsten Creek.
“This time of the year you are looking for momentum. The last couple of weeks we’ve created some good, positive momentum moving in the right direction. We’ll make sure everyone stays healthy and in a good place, and we’ll try to go take care of business at Karsten Creek.”
Fassi was elated to win but more elated the Razorbacks advance as a winning team.
“It’s always great to win individually, but I think college golf is about winning with the team,” Fassi said. “I’m just really thankful that I was able to help the team come out on top.
“It really shows how well we are playing and how well-prepared we are. It’s great moving on to nationals knowing that we won our region and had four players inside the top 10.”