Illini women’s golf completed a 18-stroke turnaround on Tuesday with a 1-under-par day in the second round of the 2026 NCAA Stanford Regional.

By Matt Stevens - IlliniGuys Staff Writer

May 12, 2026

At the end of the second day of the 2026 NCAA Stanford Regional, four teams finished play with an under-par round and Illinois was one of them.

The Illinois women’s golf program completed a 18-stroke turnaround on Tuesday from the first two rounds of NCAA regional play to jump three spots on the team leaderboard following a 1-under 283. The Illini will start the final round of the tournament tied with California State University at Fullerton for seventh place in the 12-team regional and have an opportunity for its highest NCAA regional finish since 2019.

Renee Slone’s Illinois squad got three qualifying scores on Tuesday of even-par 71 or better to not only survive but thrive on a day where their most successful player in the last month, senior Anna Ritter, had an off day.

In what is likely her second-to-last round in competition for the Illini, Brielle Mapanao made six birdies on the way to a 2-under 69 that included playing her final nine holes at 3-under par. Erica Lee, who is playing in an NCAA regional just 15 miles from her hometown of Arcadia, Calif., got Illinois off to a fantastic start in the team’s opening tee shot position on No. 10 by playing her first 10 holes at 2-under-par and being able to survive a bogey-double bogey stretch to come home with an even-par 71.

Victoria Zheng, who had a birdie-free opening round 78 on Monday that included two double bogeys, rallied on Tuesday to card an even-par 71 thanks to back-to-back birdies on the par-5 16th and par-3 17th - which were her eighth and ninth holes of her round.

Alexis Myers, a freshman from Northbrook, Ill., had an opportunity to have the Illini post all four qualifying rounds of the day at even-par or better but she couldn’t avoid her tendency this week to find a big-number hole in her round. Myers stood on the No. 5 tee, which was her 14th hole of the round, at 1-under-par after a birdie on the short 150-yard, par-3 fourth hole. However, a third double bogey of the week, time on No. 5, for Myers forced her to sign for a 1-over 72 - which was still a three-stroke improvement over her opening round on Monday.

Illinois are still 12 shots behind the cut line to the top five advancing team spots in this regional and 42 shots behind the event’s runaway leader, the No. 1-ranked Stanford Cardinal. However, if Illinois can only maintain its current position after Wednesday’s final round, Sloan’s program will record its best NCAA regional finish since 2019 - the only time in program history that the Illini finished fifth and advanced to the NCAA Championships.

New Mexico State senior Emma Bunch, a three-time Conference USA Player of the Year selection from Denmark, maintained her overnight lead from the opening round after backing up her 64 with a bogey-free 69. However, she holds just a three-shot lead for the one individual transfer spot into the NCAA Championships over Cal-State Fullerton’s Davina Xanh. Xanh posted the low round of the tournament with a bogey-free 63 as the two-time Big West Conference Golfer of the Year selection broke her program’s low single-round score on Tuesday.

Stanford did nothing but increase its lead over the field at its home course on Tuesday. The No. 1 Cardinal are 26-under-par after two days of action and have all five of its players currently with under-par scores following the first 36 holes of the regional. Stanford leads second-place Pepperdine by 19 strokes. Oregon State is solidly in the third position with a two-day total of 4-under-par. The battle for the final two transfer spots into the NCAA Championships could likely come between a three-team battle between Vanderbilt, Arizona State and Missouri as the trio are only separated by three strokes heading into the final day of play.

After being forced to play the back nine first on Tuesday, Illinois will tee off at No. 1 in the final day of the 2026 Stanford Regional with Slone electing to send off Lee first for the third straight day at 10:55 a.m. CST and with Zheng, Ritter, Myers and Mapanao to follow in 11-minute increments.

2026 NCAA Stanford Regional Championship Team Leaderboard

Stanford - 275-267--542 (-26)

Pepperdine - 283-278--561 (-7)

Oregon State - 279-285--564 (-4)

Vanderbilt - 286-285--571 (+3)

Arizona State - 290-282--572 (+4)

-------------TOP FIVE AFTER THREE ROUNDS ADVANCE TO NCAA CHAMPIONSHIPS----------

Missouri - 290-284--574 (+6)

ILLINOIS - 301-283--584 (+16)

California State at Fullerton - 293-291--584 (+16)

Arizona - 287-298--585 (+17)

California Polytechnic State - 296-296--592 (+24)

Navy - 310-296--606 (+38)

South Dakota State - 301-305--606 (+38)

ILLINOIS PLAYERS

Brielle Mapanao - 77-69--146 (+4)

Alexis Myers - 75-72--147 (+5)

Anna Ritter - 71-77--148 (+6)

Victoria Zheng - 78-71--149 (+7)

Erica Lee - 78-71--149 (+7)