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On Friday, New Mexico women’s golf tees off in the NCAA championships at Grayhawk Golf Club in Scottsdale, Arizona. It’s the Lobos’ first NCAA championship appearance since 2010, at a course UNM head coach Jill Trujillo has never played but recruited out of a junior tournament held there for “years and years.”
The NCAA championship format: after three rounds of stroke play, the top 15 of 36 teams advance to the final round on May 22. From there, eight teams advance to three rounds of match play to decide a national champion.
The Lobo team in Arizona consists of senior Jenny Lertsadwattana, senior Lauren Lehigh, junior Myah McDonald, sophomore Lisa-Marie Pagliano and freshman Maria Caparros Levin.
UNM’s 16th NCAA championship appearance overall comes after the Lobos rallied on the final day of their NCAA regional to finish a combined 25-over at TPC San Antonio for the fifth and final qualifying spot.
In their two biggest tournaments of the year, the Lobos dug deep for another strong finish after waking up on the outside looking in.
“They have guts,” Trujillo said of her team. “They don’t like losing and winning, they know now is an option. They knew we had to stay steady and in the present, hit good shots, make good putts on that day.”
In some ways, just being there is reason enough for good feelings. The Lobos have been arguably the Mountain West’s premier program since 2010. Even still, an NCAA championship appearance eluded them, successful seasons coming and going.
“It’s hard,” Trujillo said. “It’s hard to make it to the NCAA championships. First, you gotta make it to regionals and then it’s just one tournament.
“We talked about the same thing at regionals – it’s just one tournament. The fact that they had that really good mentality and bought into that part of their own game, I think it really catapulted us.”
And in some ways, just being there isn’t enough. After all, the road back has shown Trujillo and her team what they can do in these spots – with the right approach.
“You can only do and control what you’re doing at the moment,” Trujillo said. “That’s what gets people through all these rounds in the heat out here. And they all have really good attitudes, too. There’s just no downers on this team.”
