For the second straight season and eighth time in the last nine seasons, Illinois women’s golf has earned a spot in a NCAA regional.

April 29, 2026

After spending a week in California for the Big Ten Championships, the Illinois women’s golf team will be getting on a plane to travel to the Golden State once again in nearly two weeks.

For the second straight season and eighth time in nine seasons, Illinois women’s golf has earned a spot in a NCAA regional. The Illini are headed to Stanford, Calif., for the regional tournament hosted by the No. 1 overall seed Cardinal, arguably the dominant program currently in women’s golf.

Following a finish of tied for fifth in the 18-team Big Ten Championships last week at Oakmont Country Club in Glendale, Calif., Renee Sloan’s Illini squad, which is currently ranked No. 47 in the nation, received an at-large bid to a NCAA Regional. The regional selections were announced Wednesday afternoon on the Golf Channel.

Last season, Illinois finished ninth in the NCAA Columbus Regional and will be looking to find its way into the NCAA Championships field for the first time since 2019 - the program’s only NCAA Championship appearance.

Illinois has been on an impressive roll since the end of March as the Illini has four consecutive top five team finishes including a win two weeks ago in Purdue’s Boilermaker Spring Classic. The Illini are coming off a league championship event where they tied for the second-best scoring average on the par fives (4.93), and earned the third-most birdie (37) throughout the three rounds of play.

This season’s selection marks the first time Illinois will be sent out to the Pacific Time Zone to play in an NCAA sanctioned event since qualifying for the 2003 NCAA Regional in Tempe, Arizona.

Illinois has been able to rely on a balanced five-player lineup this season consisting of senior Anna Ritter, freshman Alexis Myers, senior Victoria Zheng, senior Brielle Mapana and junior Erica Lee. Myers, a Glenbrook (Ill.) North High School product, was selected as the Big Ten Freshman of the Week for the second time this season two weeks ago after she finished in a tie for fifth place at the Boilermaker Spring Classic earlier this week, helping lift Illinois to its second consecutive victory at the event.

After setting a new lowest round in Oakmont Country Club women’s tournament history with a 5-under 65 on the first day, Ritter sat in a three-way tie for third last week after 36 holes of the 2026 Big Ten Championships. Despite difficult scoring conditions on the final day, Illinois finished in the top five of the Big Ten Championships field for the fourth time of the last five years.

This regional will essentially be a home game for the Illini’s Lee, a native Arcadia, Calif., as she’ll tee off just 15 miles from where she went to high school and had an impressive junior career in the Southern California area.

Regional play will take place May 11-13 at six regional sites. If Illinois can finish among the top five teams in its 12-team regional, they’ll be booked for another week in California to compete in the national championships to be played May 22-27 at Omni La Costa Resort & Spa in Carlsbad, California.

Illinois will be an underdog to advance out of the NCAA Stanford Regional as the No. 8 seed with the field also consisting of West Coast Conference Tournament champion and No. 11 ranked Pepperdine, No. 13 Vanderbilt, No. 22 Arizona State, Missouri, Arizona, Cal State Fullerton, Oregon State, Big West Conference Tournament champion Cal Poly, Summit League Tournament champion South Dakota State and Patriot League Tournament champion Navy.

Stanford, the top-ranked program in the nation, won its first Atlantic Coast Championship last week with Paula Martín Sampedro winning the individual championship giving Stanford two individual ACC champions in two years. For the season, the Cardinal has won six team tournaments and is 2-2 in match play.