MSU women back in NCAA golf regionals after a year out

EAST LANSING – It took almost the entire NCAA selection show on April 25 before Michigan State women’s golf coach Stacy Slobodnik-Stoll felt fully comfortable.

A year ago, MSU missed the championship event for the first time since 1998. The Spartans were among the final eight teams announced in the field, and they will begin three days of NCAA Regional play Thursday at Stanford Golf Course in California.

“My poor little sophomore Sarah Burnham, who was just heartbroken outwardly last year that we were the first team out, was outwardly again looking at everyone, going, ‘Oh my gosh, oh my gosh,’” Slobodnik-Stoll said with a laugh. “Of course we were thinking of that. Of course we didn’t want to be thinking of that. But I knew that, in our position, we were going to go.”

First-team All-Big Ten golfer Burnham leads MSU with a 72.40 per-round average, which is on pace to break Caroline Powers’ five-year-old school record of 73.53.

She’s joined in the lineup by seniors Alison Knowles and Gabby Yurik, redshirt sophomore Katie Sharp and freshman Carolyn Markle.

Yurik, an All-Big Ten first-teamer last season, helped the Spartans to the 2014 NCAA Championships. She qualified individually for a spot in last year’s NCAA Regional in South Bend, Indiana.

Slobodnik-Stoll, a former two-time captain who golfed at MSU from 1990 to 1994, has only missed the NCAAs twice in her 19 seasons as the Spartans’ coach.

“We recruit great golfers. But more importantly, we recruit great people with great character,” she said. “They’re very clear when they come to Michigan State of what are expectations are, and making the NCAA tournament is obviously an expectation for us.”

MSU is the 11th seed in the Stanford regional, with USC the top seed. Other schools joining them there are Arkansas, host Stanford, Virginia, UNLV, San Diego State, Texas Tech, Ohio State, Colorado, Wake Forest, North Carolina, Pepperdine, San Jose State, UC Riverside, Idaho, Richmond and Seton Hall.

The top six teams and three individuals from each regional advance to the NCAA Championships, which will be held May 20 to 25 in Eugene, Oregon. The Spartans have made the NCAA Championships 10 times under Slobodnik-Stoll.

“We’ve done some incredible things and really had a very successful year,” Slobodnik-Stoll said. “The coup de grâce is to make the national championships.”

Contact Chris Solari at (517) 377-1070 or csolari@lsj.com.