UCLA Set to Play at 28th Consecutive NCAA Regional Championships

LOS ANGELES – The No. 10 UCLA women's golf team begins competition at the NCAA Tallahassee Regional Women's Golf Championship at Seminole Legacy Golf Club tomorrow. The three-day, 54-hole stroke play event has a course yardage of 6,292 and is a par 72.
 
Each round begins at 5 a.m. PT (8 a.m. ET), with the order of the first round set by seeds, then by results in the second and third rounds.
 
UCLA's lineup is as follows: (1) Alessia Nobilio, (2) Emilie Paltrinieri, (3) Caroline Canales, (4), Emma Spitz and (5) Zoe Antoinette Campos. Ty Akabane will serve as a substitution option.
 
UCLA will be competing at its 28th consecutive NCAA Regional Championships. From there, the top four teams at each of the six regional sites will move on to the NCAA Championships hosted at Grayhawk Golf Club in Scottsdale, Ariz.
 
South Carolina was selected as the top seed of the Tallahassee Regional. The Bruins will be the only Pac-12 team competing in the event in Tallahassee. Joining the Bruins are three other top-25 teams (GolfStat): No. 3 South Carolina, No. 16 Florida State and No. 22 Ole Miss.
 
Emma Spitz
Spitz, who was named to the All-Pac-12 First Team for the second time on April 20, enters the competition as the No. 10 ranked women's collegiate golfer in the nation. In her 26 rounds of competition this season, Spitz leads the Bruins with a 72.0 scoring average, 11 under par rounds, six rounds shot under 70. Spitz is the only Bruin to have all of her 26 rounds count towards UCLA's overall team score.
 
Spitz, an ANNIKA Award 2022 Spring Watch List member, has finished a team-high four tournaments under par: Stanford Intercollegiate (-1, 212), Nanea Pac-12 Preview (-8, 211), PING/ASU Invitational (-7, 209) and Chambers Bay Invitational (-1, 215).
 
Spitz has notched four top-10 finishes this season which is tied with Nobilio for the team lead. Most recently, Spitz secured her first tournament victory of the season and third of her career at Chambers Bay Invitational on April 12. Spitz was the only golfer at the event to finish with an under-par score (-1, 215).
 
Freshmen Phenoms
UCLA will boast three freshmen in its starting five at the NCAA Regional Championships in Nobilio, Canales and Campos. The trio boasts eight of UCLA's 16 top-10 finishes this season. Nobilio leads the way with four top-10 finishes, her most recent coming at the Pac-12 Championships with a team-best T-3rd placing (+1, 217).
 
Emilie Paltrinieri
Paltrinieri is playing her best golf of the season with back-to-back top-10 finishes in her last two competitions at the Chambers Bay Invitational, where she finished runner-up behind Spitz at 1-over 217, and the Pac-12 Championships, where she tied for ninth at 4-over 220.
 
Campos at the U.S. Women's Open Qualifier
In her most recent non-collegiate competition, Campos tied for fourth (-6; 65-73) at the U.S. Women's Open Qualifier at Soule Park Golf Course in Ojai, Calif., on April 27. Campos entered a 2-for-1 playoff for the second alternate position and sank a 17-foot put on the first playoff hole to claim the spot.
 
UCLA at the NCAA Regional Championships
Head coach Carrie Forsyth has not missed out on the NCAA Regional Championships in her 23-year career at UCLA and has led the Bruins to three straight top-3 finishes and 17 total top-3 finishes in the event while at the helm of the program. UCLA has won the NCAA Regionals title eight times with Forsyth at the helm of the program.
 
Then-sophomore Emma Spitz won the individual title at the Louisville Regional marking the third year in a row a Bruin has been the medalist at Regionals after Patty Tavatanakit won in 2018 and 2019. Spitz and Tavatanakit both finished 8-under 208 in each of those three seasons. UCLA has had nine winners of an NCAA Regional.
 
NCAA Tallahassee Regional Championship (Teams, listed in order of seed): (1) South Carolina, (2) UCLA, (3) Florida State, (4) Ole Miss, (5) Illinois, (6) Mississippi State, (7) Miami (Fla.), (8) Denver, (9) UNF, (10) College of Charleston, (11) Georgia Southern, (12) Quinnipiac.
 
NCAA Tallahassee Regional Championships (individuals): Letizia Bagnoli (Florida Atlantic), Melanie Green (USF), Olivia Schmidt (Arkansas State), Berta Sanchez (Jacksonville State), Alizee Vidal (Kennesaw State), Victoria Schroedl (Fairleigh Dickinson).