Florida Gators

TOURNAMENT INFORMATION
Dates: Monday, May 6 - Wednesday, May 8
Location: Forest Akers West Golf Course - East Lansing, Mich.
Host: Michigan State University 
Course Par/Yardage: 72 / 6,325 yards
Format: 54-hole stroke play (18-18-18)
Tee Times: 9:15 a.m. ET on Monday and TBD on Tuesday and Wednesday
Live Scoring: Golfstat
Social Media: Twitter | Instagram | Facebook

LINEUP
No. 1 - Inès Archer  
No. 2 - Maisie Filler
No. 3 - Marina Escobar
No. 4 - Paula Francisco
No. 5 - Jackie Lucena
Alternate - Sophie Stevens

TEE OFF
The No. 18 Florida women's golf team begins NCAA Regional play at the East Lansing Regional on Monday at 9:15 a.m. at Forest Akers West Golf Course.

The Gators look to be a top-5 team to advance to the NCAA Championship from May 17-22 at Omni La Costa in Carlsbad, Calif.  

THE FIELD (Seed Number)
No. 1 USC, No. 2 Northwestern, No. 3 Florida, No. 4 Pepperdine, No. 5 Michigan State, No. 6 Kentucky, No. 7 Denver, No. 8 Oklahoma State, No. 9 Indiana, No. 10 Augusta, No. 11 Illinois State and No. 12 Oakland. 

Individuals (seeded in the following order): 1. Isabel Sy (Illinois), 2. Catie Craig (Western Kentucky) 3. Lauren Beaudreau (Notre Dame), 4. Carmen Griffiths (Louisville), 5. Hana Ryskova (Louisville) and 6. Kate Petrova (Evansville).

FORMAT
NCAA Regional play will take place May 6-8 at six regional sites, with 396 participants and each site featuring 12 teams and six individuals. The top five teams (30 teams total) and the low individual not on an advancing team (six individuals total) from each regional site will advance to compete in the national championships.

TOURNAMENT HISTORY
The Gators have qualified for 30 of the 31 all-time women's golf regionals as they were introduced in 1993 - the only year missed was 1999. Florida has made every regional since 2000 and each year under head coach Emily Glaser. The program has won three titles with the first in 2008 and back-to-back in 2016 and 2017, to tie for 10th all-time with Vanderbilt. Kelly Grassel claimed the program's first individual regional title in 2017 at the Columbus Regional.

Florida looks to clinch a spot into the NCAA Championship for the first time since 2019.

HOME SWEET HOME
Florida head coach Emily Galser returns to her alma mater where she played four years at Michigan State University and is considered the greatest Spartan golfer of all time. She was an NCAA All-American in 2002, a four-time All-Big Ten selection (1999-2002), the 2002 Big Ten Golf Athlete of the Year and the 1999 Big Ten Freshman of the Year. She set the program's single-season record for stroke average during the 2002 season, while appearing in four NCAA Regionals and three NCAA Championships.
 
Glaser's storied collegiate career includes being named to the United States' Curtis Cup team in 2002, and being selected as the Michigan State George Alderton Athlete of the Year in both 2000 and 2002. After her stint as a player, she was hired as an assistant coach at MSU, a position she held during the 2002-03 school year. In 2012, Glaser was inducted into the Michigan State Athletics Hall of Fame to commemorate her success as a Spartan student-athlete and coach.

STRONG REGULAR SEASON
Florida put together a strong regular season. The Gators finished top-7 in all nine tournaments, including three victories, seven top-5 and six top-3 finishes. UF also ended with a 2-1 match play record with victories over Pepperdine and UCLA. 

ROOKIE MOMENTUM 
The freshmen duo of Inès Archer and Paula Francisco closed out the regular-season on a high note as the two had the top-2 finishes on the team in the final two tournaments. Archer was recently named the SEC All-Freshman team behind a T20 finish in her first SEC Championship.

Archer recorded a T7-T2, which earned her SEC Freshman of the Week honors, which marked all three members of her signing class (Sophie Stevens and Francisco) earning the weekly conference honor. She had 54-hole score of 213 (-3) and had a career-low round of 67 (-5).

Francisco went T21-T7 and owned a T8 outing in the Gators Invitational (third final tournament) and was named SEC Freshman of the Week for the performance. 

NO. 1 & MORE
Florida women's golfer Maisie Filler earned the No. 1 ranked player in the country by the NCAA Rankings on Feb. 21. She held the ranking for two weeks and is currently ranked No. 9. Filler also was tabbed First-Team All-SEC this season, her second regular season conference accolade; All-Freshman in 2021 and All-SEC Second Team in 2022. She was also named to Team USA for the Arnold Palmer Cup this summer.

Ranked No. 2 going into the Moon Golf Invitational, Filler won her third individual title of the season at the tournament in a field that featured 12 top-25 teams. Currently, her three wins are tied for the most in the nation. She is also the eighth Gator all-time to win three medalist honors in a season with Sierra Brooks being the most recent in 2018.

The victory was Filler's third consecutive in stroke play tournaments as the spring opener was altered to match play only. She went 3-0 in the event with wins against three ranked teams; No. 4 UCLA, No. 8 Texas and No. 20 Pepperdine. 

She shot a 54-hole score of 207 (-9) for a three-shot victory. Filler recorded all three rounds (66-69-72) of par or better with an opening round of 66 (-6). Over her 54 holes, she made 35 pars and 14 birdies. She averaged 2.83 on par3s, 3.90 on par4s and 4.67 on par5s.

LEFT A MARK IN AUGUSTA 
Maisie Filler finished T8 at the Augusta National Women's Amateur (ANWA), marking the best finish by a Gator all-time. 

Her finish (T8) marked the best since Sierra Brooks T10 performance in 2019. Filler took part in her second appearance at the prestigious event, making the cutting for the first time and entered the day two shots off the lead from eventual champion, Lottie Woad.  

Filler started the final round cutting down the lead to one shot behind a birdie on her second hole. She brought the deficit to one stroke multiple times and battled in the final round at Augusta National Golf Club with back-to-back birdies on seven and eight that kept her in reach of the leader. However, a pair of doubles over the next three holes gave way to a final round of 76 (+4) and her T8 finish.

She advanced to the final round for the first time and is the third Gator to achieve so joining Sierra Brooks (2019), Annabell Fuller (2022) and Marta Perez (2019). Last year Filler just missed the cut by one shot. 

Filler began with an opening round of 68 (-4) on Wednesday to end T5. She highlighted her round with a hole-out for eagle on hole one. After a bogey on her fourth hole, she went bogey-free the rest of the way and capped off with a birdie. In round two, the senior finished strong again and found her rhythm. She bounced back from a 4-over mark on the front nine with a 3-under back nine, including a stretch of three birdies across holes 14-17 for a final round of 73 (+1).

FALL RECAP
Florida dominated the fall season with three consecutive victories behind back-to-back individual victories from Filler. A combined 25 strokes marked the margin of victory by UF along with 17 individual top-25 finishes. The team victories totaled 31 by head coach Emily Glaser; 32 total as she was an assistant coach for a win in 2011-12 at UF. This is the fifth time under Glaser that Florida has won three events in a season with the last being in 2019-20. It is also the seventh occurrence of multiple victories in a season with Glaser at the helm.

Maisie Filler's fall play earned her two medalist honors and a spot on the ANNIKA Award Watch List and a two-time SEC Golfer of the Week recipient. She currently leads the Gators in nearly every statistical category and ranks second in stroke average in the SEC with a 69.67. She is one of two golfers in the SEC (LSU's Ingrid Lindblad) who has two solo victories this season, which is also tied for second-most in Division I. The senior has finished 1-1-T2 in the last three events and under par for three of the four

STRONG DEBUT
Freshman Sophie Stevens had a collegiate debut to remember as the Highland, Michigan native finished a team-best T15. In her first round she posted a bogey-free 66 (-5) and later added a 69 (-2) in round three to end 5-under overall. 

In her second tournament she placed T7 and finishing with a 54-hole score 216 (E) en route to being named SEC Freshman of the Week. 

ONE LAST TIME
The duo Marina Escobar and Jackie Lucena returned for their fifth and final collegiate season heading into the 2023-24 campaign. This will be their third season together as Lucena joined the program in 2021 as a transfer from UC Davis. 

NEW FACES IN THE ORANGE & BLUE
Five new Gators joined the program this year in Georgia Southern transfer Sarunchana Rattanasin and freshmen Ines Archer, Paula Francisco, Addison Klonowski and Sophie Stevens.

THE TURN
The NCAA Championship will make its debut at the Omni La Costa in Carlsbad, Calif. From May 17-22.