The LSU men’s golf team received a No. 5 seed and Southeastern Louisiana a No. 10 seed in the Stanford Regional, while the University of Louisiana at Lafayette team was chosen as the No. 11 seed in the UNC Greensboro Regional as the NCAA Division I men’s golf tournament pairings were announced Monday night.
LSU, ranked 23rd, is in a regional for the fifth straight season, while UL-Lafayette will be making its first appearance since 2007.
The regionals are May 17-19.
LSU and SLU will play in a 13-team field at the Stanford Golf Course in Palo Alto, Calif., while UL-Lafayette will tee off among a 14-team field at the Grandover Resort East Course in Greensboro, N.C.
The top five teams in each of six regionals, totaling 81 teams, will advance to the Division I championship tournament May 29-June 3 at Riviera Golf Club in Pacific Palisades, Calif.
Other regionals will be played at the University of Georgia Golf Club (Athens, Ga.), the Club at Olde Stone (Bowling Green, Ky.), the University of Michigan Golf Course (Ann Arbor, Mich.) and the Jimmie Austin Golf Club (Norman, Okla.).
LSU is seeking its third straight trip to the NCAA Men’s Golf Championships after advancing with a fifth place at the 2010 NCAA Central Regional and fourth place at the 2011 NCAA Virginia Tech Regional.
Joining the Tigers and the Lions in the regional are No. 1 seed California, No. 2 seed Stanford, No. 3 seed San Diego State and No. 4 seed Central Florida. Also in the field are No. 6 UAB, No. 7 Wichita State, No. 8 Tennessee, No. 9 Oregon State, No. 11 San Francisco, No. 12 San Jose State and No. 13 UC-Davis.
The Tigers have won three tournament titles for the fourth straight season.
SLU, ranked 59th, will make its third straight trip to an NCAA regional and sixth in school history. This is the third time — and second straight season — that the Lions received an at-large bid.
“I’m really happy for our guys,” SLU coach Tim Baldwin said. “To be able to make the field with a lineup that features three freshmen is a testament to our team’s dedication and commitment, as well as our ability to fight through the ups and downs a young team like ours experiences. (Southland Conference Men’s Golfer of the Year) Philipp Westermann has carried us throughout the year, and Rhys West has been a steadying influence with his solid play.
“It should be a neat trip for our team, and from what we hear it’s a very challenging golf course. We’re going out there to compete hard and see if we can surprise our opponents.”
Two other Southland Conference teams are in the NCAA field. Lamar, the league champion, earned an automatic bid and will be the 10th seed in Greensboro, while UT-Arlington is the No. 11 seed in Athens.
Also in the field with ULL are Auburn, UNLV, Florida, Duke, Indiana, Liberty, SMU, Texas Tech, Tulsa, Lamar, Charlotte, George Washington and Mount St. Mary’s.
“I can’t be more proud of these guys,” UL-Lafayette coach Theo Sliman said. “This is all about them. They have worked their tales off this year. I’ve been very fortunate to coach the two seniors we have. They have given this team everything they have in their four years.
“It was great to see the look on the guys faces when they saw the selection. A goal of this team at the start of the year was to make nationals. You have to make it to regionals to make it to nationals, so we still have some work to do to achieve our goal.”
Seniors Philipp Fendt and Andrew Noto each have NCAA postseason experience as Fendt has made appearances in two regionals, while Noto was selected to last years regional in Ocala, Fla.
The Cajuns are coming off of a third-place finish as the Sun Belt Conference Championship.
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