The Cavaliers are marching on.
After seizing opportunity after opportunity in the clutch — especially during the final round Wednesday — Virginia flipped its underwhelming ACC Tournament finish on its head.
In the program’s fifth-straight season, Virginia women’s golf has forged past the regionals to the NCAA Championships. This season marks the program’s 16th championship berth in 23 years.
The 54-hole trudge at UNC Finley Golf Course, hosted by North Carolina, forced the talented 12-team slate to fight for air as much as for position. Amidst the course’s harshly sloped greens and grueling hole distances, most of the field spent the week merely treading water. Aside from No. 1-seed Texas’s second round of nine-under par and No. 2-seed North Carolina’s opening round six-under-par, squads largely struggled to break even as they sought to reach the top five slots.
Still, Virginia was able to find an early groove in the first 18 holes. Freshman Elsie MacCleery left no stone unturned Monday with a career-low 67 while recording the second-lowest opening round score in Cavalier NCAA Regional history. MacCleery was fourth on the individual leaderboard Monday.
As a team, Virginia finished in third place behind the Longhorns and Tar Heels on a one-over-par outing, with two other Cavaliers rounding out the top 20 individual performers after the first round. All-ACC junior Jaclyn LaHa anchored the Cavaliers throughout the tournament, scoring a 69 in a one-under-par performance to remain tied for fifth, and sophomore Kennedy Swedick tied for 18th place, carding a 71.
Despite the fast start Monday, the Cavaliers’ narrow one-stroke lead fell through the cracks in the second round. Posting a 14 over par overall, Virginia tumbled down the rankings to place sixth after Tuesday’s 18. However, the outing was business as usual for LaHa, who maintained her consistency in a break-even round to tie individually at eighth. MacCleery was also tied for 12th after the second round.
Five strokes behind fifth-place Mississippi State into the final round, Virginia had considerable ground to cover after plummeting Tuesday. The possibility of a hot start was quickly extinguished when three of the Cavaliers’ starting five bogeyed the first hole on the course, followed by a flurry of two more bogeys on the next hole. Virginia’s first nine left the team five over par among its top four scorers.
In the final nine, Virginia mounted an impressive rally to finish one under par and four over par overall Wednesday, thanks to birdies from LaHa and MacCleery on their last hole. LaHa recorded the third-lowest NCAA Regional 54-hole outing for a Cavalier with an even-par 210, finishing tied for 10th individually. MacCleery ended the final round two over par overall, claiming 14th place as an individual.
Junior Mira Berglund hopped 17 positions on the individual leaderboard to round out a one-under-par performance Wednesday and eight over par in the tournament. Freshman Remi Bacardi’s bogey-free stretch on the front nine to finish 13 over par overall led the Cavaliers to a three-way tie for fourth place at 18 over par with No. 7-seed Michigan State and No. 8-seed NC State.
The Cavaliers and Spartans ultimately achieved the final two qualifying spots in the three-team playoff, with Virginia settling at fifth place and Michigan State in fourth. As an individual, Princeton’s Thanana Kotchasanmanee advanced out of the Chapel Hill Regional with a six-under-par overall score.
With 30 teams moving on to the NCAA Championships at Omni La Costa Resort & Spa in Carlsbad, Calif., Virginia women’s golf has already exceeded postseason expectations with its young core and has proven the program’s resilience in competing with the nation’s elite year after year. As the countdown to the May 22 tournament tee-off begins, the Cavaliers arrive in California with the wind at their backs.
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