Published: May 04, 2008 12:13 am            

Ready for a run?

• Cowgirls roll into Regional

A 27-stroke victory in the Big 12 Conference Championship last weekend, a No. 7 national ranking and three tournament wins for 2007-08 was good enough for a No. 5 seed in one of three NCAA Regionals?

Talk about a lack of respect.

Oklahoma State’s women’s golf team, coming off a league title at Karsten Creek a week ago, will compete at the NCAA West Regional later this week at Lincoln Hills Golf Club in Lincoln, Calif.

It is O-State’s 16th-consecutive NCAA appearance.

“I know a lot of people probably don’t really consider us a favorite, but that doesn’t bother us,” said junior Karin Kinnerud, part of a 1-2-3 individual finish for OSU at the Big 12s. “We played well as a team (at the Big 12s) and are going to take that momentum into a Regional.

“We don’t look ahead. We want to win the Regional just like we did last year.”

At last season’s West Regional at St. George, Utah, O-State tied for top honors and saw Pernilla Lindberg earn medalist. Two weeks later at the 2007 NCAA Championship in Daytona Beach, Fla., the Cowgirls never recovered from an opening-round 312 and eventually finished in a tie for 14th, 56 shots behind champion Duke.

Lindberg struggled at the Big 12s but is still ranked ninth in the country. Her 71.57 strokes per round lead the team and the Swede will be making her third NCAA appearance. The junior was named Big 12 Player of the Year last week.

With her victory at the Big 12s, freshman Jaclyn Sweeney, the league’s Newcomer of the Year, moved into the rankings at No. 12. In four of her six starts this spring, she has finished among the Top 10.

Tammy Clelland, at No. 66, and Kinnerud, at No. 71, give coach Laura Matthews’ squad four players among the Top 100.

Junior Amanda Johnson played as well as anybody at Karsten Creek last weekend, finishing third to earn her best career finish. Although ranked outside the Top 150, the Jenks product finished seventh at last season’s West Regional.

The goal this weekend is to finish in the top eight as a team to earn a berth in the NCAA Championships at Albuquerque, N.M., May 20-23.

“I think we have a chance against anybody, we showed that at the Big 12s,” Sweeney said. “It was on our home course, so we should win, but the way we won showed that if everybody plays well this team is pretty capable.

“I go into every tournament with the idea of doing whatever I can to win and I think most of the girls on this team feel the same way.”

The top 52 teams in the Golfweek/Sagarin College Rankings all made the postseason, as well as 11 lower-ranked teams that automatically qualified by winning conference championships. Augusta State, at No. 53, was the highest-ranked team not to make the postseason.

The 21-team West Regional field, which tees off Thursday, includes No. 1 Southern California, No. 5 Arizona State, No. 9 Arkansas and No. 13 Arizona. Michigan State (17), California (22), Stanford (25), BYU (30), Tulsa (34), Oklahoma and Oral Roberts are also set to compete.

“I don’t think there’s any question as to whether we are one of the top 24 teams in the country, but you have to perform at Regionals,” said Matthews, who’s led the Cowgirls to a pair of NCAA appearances in her first two seasons in Stillwater. “We played very well (at the Big 12s) and we will be taking some momentum into the postseason.”

        

• Click to discuss this story with other readers on our forums.