STARKVILLE — Mississippi State women’s golf coach Ginger Brown-Lemm was asked what she thought it would mean to the program by making back-to-back NCAA Championships.
She didn’t need it phrased in a future tense situation.
“We are already starting to go on the recruiting trail and get access to players that Mississippi State wasn’t in play for when we started to turn this program around,” Brown-Lemm said. “We are so excited about the idea of where this is going.”
The Bulldogs finished third in the NCAA Regional at Karstens Creek Golf Club to qualify for the national championship starting today.
Ji Eun Baik and the emergence of Taiwan native Jessica Peng have been the freshmen backbone that has been supporting MSU’s top player Ally McDonald that has allowed this team success to occur.
MSU is ranked 27th in the country and will only have one senior, Mary Langdon Gallagher, in the 2014 NCAA Championship field. With one of the best amateur players in the world, Ally McDonald, Mississippi State has been trying to build a team around the All-Southeastern Conference team nominee and Curtis Cup team selection.
“It hasn’t been about putting good players around Ally but putting players with Ally to challenge her and make her a better player simply based on her competitiveness,” Brown-Lemm said.
MSU was only one shot back of Alabama in their NCAA Regional five days ago and hope to put up competitive scores with some of the best programs in the country including Southern California, UCLA, Duke, Vanderbilt and Arizona State. In order to accomplish a Top 5 finish in the championship event, they’ll need three more incredibly solid scores around McDonald, who is hoping to challenge for medalist honors at Tulsa County Club in Oklahoma.
“They’re mature freshmen and they’ve played in big tournaments before so all I can do is build their confidence,” McDonald said of her youthful teammates. “There’s no pressure for them. They’re ready and prepared to handle the NCAA Championships.”
MSU No. 2 player Jessica Peng and No. 3 player Rica Tse each owned 3-over-par 75 third round scores to narrowly miss the top-25 by one shot at 9-over-par 225 in the regional. The All-Freshman team selection Peng made a 7-shot-turnaround from her first nine holes to her back nine holes, including a birdie on the 18th to go along with her eagle and birdie on the hole from her earlier rounds.
The Fulton native McDonald showed great perseverance to bounce back from her bogey on hole three to notch a birdie-par-birdie stretch en route to shooting her lowest round and tallying 11 total birdies at the regional.
“We have set the bar high for the future Bulldogs to chase and I am so impressed with the resilience and patience this team has played with,” Brown-Lemm said. “We will get to a point where the top players in the region and the country want to come play here and compete for championships.”
Follow Matt Stevens on Twitter @matthewcstevens.
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