Like nine previous tournaments this year, Duke women's golf claimed victory at the NCAA East Regionals from May 6 through 8. Unlike the others, however, the NCAA Regionals win earned the Blue Devils a chance to play for their third National Championship and an opportunity to cap off one of the most dominating seasons the sport has ever seen.
The team returns to the Lake Course at Grand National in Auburn, Alabama Tuesday to begin the four day tournament that will end its season at the same place where it began its season defeating many of the same teams that the Blue Devils will have to fend off next week.
"The main goal we have is to get better each tournament in preparation for the National Championship," senior Virada Nirapathpongporn said. "I think we have done that and I am excited about returning to Auburn."
For Duke, any further preparation for this year's championship will be mental. Blue Devil head coach Dan Brooks wants to make sure his team is enjoying its experience.
"They're definitely working hard, and I like where their golf swings are," Brooks said. "I think we're in pretty good shape--I'm just making sure we get some good humor in and have some fun along the way."
The Blue Devils were familiar with the teams they defeated at the East Regional, but some of the teams competing for the national championship will not be as well-known.
"These teams [at Regionals] we have been running into all the spring," Brooks said. "I was not surprised that the margin was pretty big. We're aware of the fact that the teams at Nationals are not going to be the teams we faced at Regionals."
According to Brooks, most of Duke's competition will come from the West Region. UCLA, the No. 2 team in the nation, won the NCAA West Regionals with three-day total of 861 and third-ranked University of California also carded a solid score in the event.
Duke is hoping not to repeat last year's NCAA Championship, in which the team placed 10th despite entering the tournament as one of the favorites, instead bowing to the University of Southern California, which won its first National Championship.
"We weren't thinking about USC last year," Brooks said. "Golf is a little bit strange at times."
The competition will strengthen next week, but, as they have done all season, this past weekend the Blue Devils had their way with the other Eastern powerhouses.
Duke led wire to wire at the Par 72, 6,165-yard El Campeon Course in Howey-in-the-Hills, Fla., besting the competition by 22 strokes.
Three golfers finished in the top five to to pace the team. Sophomore Liz Janangelo, the top-ranked player in the nation, and fourth-ranked Brittany Lang tied for third. Janangelo shot a tournament-best 69 on the final day to end with a total of 217. Senior Leigh Anne Hardin recorded a three-day total of 218 for a fifth-place tie. Lang and Hardin tied for the team led each of the first two days, with a 71 the first day and a 72 on the second day.
Rounding out the Blue Devil win were freshman Anna Grzebien, carding a 224 total in her 15th place tie, and Nirapathpongporn with a 228 for a tie in 24th place.
Although Duke was able to secure its fifth-straight East Regionals victory, the team struggled in the middle round of the competition. On the second day, Janangelo had two double-bogeys and two bogies during her final nine holes to end with a 76.
Grzebien also had a tough second day with a seven-over-par performance, dropping her ranking from 7th to 22nd.
Brooks attributed the team's struggle to impatience. Citing a long, hot afternoon of play, Brooks noted that impatience is one of his team's only flaws.
"[Impatience is] possibly the only thing that's going to get this team down," Brooks said. People who are high-achievers are impatient.... That's what we're going to be talking a lot about."
The Blue Devils were able to fire back on the third day of regionals, however. Janangelo and Grzebien tied for a team-best three birdies the final day. Grzebien recorded seven birdies over the tournament.
The team's overall struggle came the second day, but Nirapathpongporn had her worst performance on the last day of the tournament. The U.S. Amateur champion's final round of 81 was only the fourth time she has ever recorded a round in the 80s.
The depth of Duke's squad was evident as the team dominated the competition even though the team's highest individual finish was third. North Carolina's Meaghan Francella (209) and Ashley Prange (214) took the top two spots.
"It was nice to finish with a large margin of victory and we didn't even have the individual winner," Brooks said. "In most cases, if a team wins by a lot of strokes then they have an individual going very low."
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