Down doesn’t mean done for the UNM women’s golf team.
After a grueling eight-month season, the Lobos are preparing for their 19th straight trip to the NCAA regionals May 5 in Auburn, Wash., after they received an at-large bid.
“It’s a nice ending to a really tough year for us,” head coach Jill Trujillo said. “This team has struggled and worked really hard to get to where we are right now. We played our best round of the season in the conference championship, and it’s a nice reward for us to get selected for the regionals.”
UNM has to finish in the top eight at regionals to move on to the NCAA championships.
To get to regionals, the Lobos, with three freshmen and one senior on a seven-player roster, had to overcome a rocky fall season. They scored in the bottom half of all four tournaments they played.
Trujillo said it’s difficult to bring in three freshmen to compete at a high level right away, but once they got the kinks out, they had a much smoother spring.
“It does not matter if you were a good junior player,” she said.
“Making that transition to college is hard for anyone. We have worked out the problems in the fall semester, and in the spring, we really buckled down and got the job done.”
The Lobos, however, still lacked consistency on the golf course during the spring season, but had their best rounds of the season two weeks ago, and it elevated them to a fourth-place finish in the Mountain West Tournament.
Junior Rebecca Hellbom, one of the five Lobos representing UNM at the regionals, said the team has learned from its mistakes.
“As the season has progressed, we have gotten a lot better as a team, and our past two tournaments have been our best so far,” she said. “I think as the season progressed our young players have gotten more and more experience, and it has shown in better practices and tournaments.”
UNM will not take its lone senior, Jordan Kennon, to the regional tournament but will travel with juniors Hellbom and Sarah Salvo.
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Sophomore Beth Buchner and freshmen Manon De Roey and Sammi
Stevens will make their first NCAA regional appearance.
While UNM has played in the NCAA regional since 1993, this year’s competition doesn’t look to be any easier. The field includes eight of the nation’s top-25 teams, including No. 1 Southern California. Virginia and Arizona are also ranked in the top 10.
The Lobos are seeded 18th in the 24-team tournament.
Trujillo said her team can compete with any team head-to-head.
“We are in a really good regional this year, but many of the teams seeded above us we have beat head-to-head this season, so that’s always a good thing,” Trujillo said.
