Arizona women’s golf wins Raleigh Regional, advances to NCAA Championships

Arizona women’s golf is returning home with a ticket to the NCAA Championships.

The Wildcats won the NCAA Raleigh Regional Wednesday with a 7-under par final round. Arizona entered the day in fourth place, needing to finish among the top five teams in the regional to advance to the NCAA Championships later this month.

Arizona finished the three-round regional with a 5-under, two strokes ahead of runner-up North Carolina State.

The UA crawled up the leaderboard Wednesday, paced by Julia Misemer. The freshman shot a 4-under on the final round and who finished the regional at 8-under, tied for second among individual golfers.

Lilas Pinthier and Gile Bite Starkute also shot under par Wednesday. Pinthier placed 10th individually with a 1-under, while Starkute finished for a tie of 33rd at 5-over. Carolina Malgrati, who shot even Wednesday, finished the regional at 3-over for a tie of 24th.

Arizona was in second place for much of the day, but the host Wolfpack faltered over the final holes, giving the Wildcats the win.

Wake Forest, TCU and Florida State also advanced. Rival Arizona State fell short of advancing after shooting a 10-over on the final round.

Arizona is one of four Pac-12 schools to advance to the NCAA Championships, which are held at Grayhawk Golf Club in Scottsdale May 19-24. Stanford and USC both advanced out of the Pullman Regional, while Oregon State advanced out of the Westfield (Indiana) Regional.

Not counting the 2019-20 season disrupted by COVID-19, Arizona has advanced to the NCAA Championships in nine of 12 seasons under head coach Laura Ianello. Arizona won the NCAA title in 2017-18.