EVANSTON, Ill. -- The No. 15 Wildcats will begin their journey to the 2015 NCAA Championships in the Raleigh Regional next week, the sixth straight NCAA bid for head coach Emily Fletcher and the `Cats. Lonnie Poole Golf Course at N.C. State University will host the 2015 Big Ten Champions and 23 other squads from May 7-9.
2015 NCAA Raleigh Regional - Tournament Central
Northwestern heads to its sixth straight NCAA regional, the 13th bid in program history, in pursuit of its third consecutive appearance in the NCAA Championships.
In addition to the No. 15 Wildcats, the Raleigh Regional features four teams ranked in the Golfweek/Sagarin Top-20, and four more in the Top-35. The 24-team field includes No. 4 South Carolina, No. 7 Louisiana State, No. 12 Mississippi State, No. 20 Florida, No. 26 Alabama, No. 27 Central Florida, No. 30 Furman, No. 34 Ohio State, Iowa State, North Carolina State, Georgia Regents University, Coastal Carolina, Campbell, College of Charleston, Seton Hall, Wichita State and Fairleigh Dickinson.
"We're excited to go east to compete against a group of strong teams, including several that have played well recently," said Fletcher. "One thing I know, regardless of which Regional you go to, you have to play really well to advance. This is certainly different than what we do week-to-week during the year in competition. We strive to play our best golf, but do so knowing that only six teams will have the opportunity to advance from the field."
The top six teams from each of the NCAA's four regional brackets (Raleigh, San Antonio, South Bend, St. George) advance to the 2015 NCAA Championships at Concession Golf Club in Bradenton, Fla., from May 22-27.
Northwestern is coming off its best team performance of the season, winning the 2015 Big Ten Championship on Sunday at The Fort Golf Resort in Indianapolis, the team's second Conference crown in three years. Freshman Sarah Cho played the three-day event at 3-under-par to earn the second Big Ten individual title in program history.
"I think our team is playing its best golf of the season, I love the momentum we have going into next week," said Fletcher. "We played a couple of great rounds at the Big Ten Championships, particularly the surge on Sunday."
The tournament field was unveiled Monday evening live on The Golf Channel, the start of 100 hours of coverage on the network of the Men's and Women's Championships. This spring marks the first time since 1997 that The Golf Channel will air live coverage of the NCAA Division I Women's Golf Championship.
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