Hartlage Advances to the National Championship
The third and final day of the NCAA Regional proved to be harsh for the Louisville women's golf team. The Cards entered the final day sitting fourth and had a four-stroke lead over the seventh place team at the time. The top six teams qualify for the NCAA Championship.
Over the course of the day, Louisville shot a 10-over-par to drop down to 11th overall and miss out on the NCAA Championship. Head coach Whitney Young hinted that the Cards struggled on the green, proving to be their downfall.
However, Lauren Hartlage performed well enough to qualify. The fifth-year senior shot a two-under-par 214 for the tournament for fourth place overall. Hartlage is the team's first individual qualifier since 2016.
Hana Ryskova finished 16th overall at two-over-par 218. Margot Bechadergue and Molly Lyne both shot a 10-over-par 226 to tie for 51st. Carly Haines only played the last two rounds but finished 94th from the two rounds after shooting 159. Cardinals golfer Mairead Martin and Agustina Gomez-Cisterna -- who competed in the ACC Championships for UofL, did not play in the regional.
Despite the third-day plummet, things still went better in the Louisville Regional vs. the Baton Rouge Regional. Poor weather led to the regional never being played. By NCAA rule, the top six seeds advance to the NCAA Championship. There was no rain on Wednesday and the committee that made the decision said the course was playable, but not for a "championship level", sparking major outrage and controversy.
Softball Begins ACC Tournament vs Duke
It's do or die time for Louisville softball. After a first round bye, 6-seed Louisville gears up to face 3-seed Duke tonight at Ulmer Stadium.
Duke won the regular season series 3-1 after the Cards had stolen the series-opening win 2-0. Duke went on to win the next game 9-1 to even the series. The final two games were much closer with the Cards falling 5-4 in both of them.
Louisville struggled in the final couple weeks of the regular season against teams near the bottom of the conference standings. The Cards went 2-2 against both Boston College and North Carolina.
This game is set to start at 7:30 p.m., but being the fourth and final game of the day I highly doubt this game will start on time. You can catch this game on television on the ACC Network.
I plan to be out there to capture this game on camera and hopefully a Louisville win.
Happy Thursday and Go Cards!
Jared
