LSU golfers in West regional

The LSU women’s golf team, ranked sixth in the National Golf Coaches Association poll and seventh in the latest GolfStat performance rankings, has received an invitational to the NCAA West regional tournament as the second seed at Erie, Colo., May 10-12.

The 54-hole tournament will be played at the Colorado National Golf Club, hosted by the University of Colorado. The Buffaloes are the fourth seed in the regional.

Tulane is the 12th seed in the East regional at Penn State.

It is the 18th time in 20 years the Lady Tigers have reached the NCAA tournament.

The top eight teams in each of the three regional competitions (East, Central, West) will advance to the NCAA Division I Women’s Golf Championships from May 22-25 at the Legends Club of Vanderbilt in Franklin, Tenn. LSU has advanced from regional play nine times, including two of the past three years, and 11 times overall since the program began in the 1979-80 school year.

Last year, the Lady Tigers had their best NCAA finish, finishing third, eight shots behind winner UCLA. Then-freshman Austin Ernst shot two rounds of 6-under 66 in the 72-hole event to finish at 7-under-par 281 and become the first LSU women’s golfer to win the individual national championship.

Last season, LSU finished second behind UCLA in the Central regional.

UCLA and LSU will be paired again this year, with the defending champs the No. 1 seed in the West. North Carolina is third seed, followed by Colorado, Pac-12 champion California, Baylor, West Coast Conference champion Pepperdine and Big West champ UC Davis rounding out the top eight seeds in the 24-team field.

“I had tried to map things out and thought we would be put in the West region,” LSU coach Karen Bahnsen said Monday night. “We are excited about it. I am checking the weather, but it will be fine as long as we don’t have to deal with snowflakes. I am very pleased. It’s a very strong field. There are a lot of good quality teams. We just need to get ready and play three good rounds of golf and move on to nationals.”

Eleven of the 12 Southeastern Conference teams advanced to the regionals.