UAlbany women golfers headed for NCAAs

For the second time in four years, the University at Albany women's golf team has earned its way into the NCAA Championships.

The first time was a bit of a surprise. This time, it was a mission.

UAlbany received an automatic NCAA bid Sunday by winning the championship in the Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference, of which it's an associate member for women's golf. The Great Danes totaled 921 strokes in the 54-hole tournament, 12 better than runner-up Quinnipiac, at Disney's Magnolia Golf Course in Lake Buena Vista, Fla.

"We were all pretty much rookies," Colleen Cashman-McSween, in her sixth season as UAlbany coach, said of 2015. "That year we weren't supposed to be there. We were picked to be fifth in the MAAC. Everything was brand new and exciting back then, so we didn't have any expectations."

The Great Danes will find out their regional site at 5:30 p.m. Wednesday, when the field is announced on Golf Channel. The regionals will be played May 7-9 at Tallahassee, Fla.; Madison, Wis.; Austin, Texas, and Stanford, Calif.

UAlbany had its entire roster back from last year, when it lost the MAAC title by five strokes.

"We knew we had the talent to do it," Cashman-McSween said. "That was never a question. We've had some ups and downs in spring. We played super well, and then not so well. They really never lost focus.

"Since Day 1 in the fall, the MAAC championship has always been or goal. They were there last year, and they felt the agony of defeat, and that motivated them going there this year, not to have that happen again."

Senior Annie Songeun Lee, as she did her freshman year, won the MAAC individual title, shooting a 4-over-par 220 to win by seven shots. Teammate Megan Henry was third (228). UAlbany's Caroline Juillat and Helga Einarsdottir tied for 10th (237). Annika Espino tied for 19th (242).

Other than Lee, all of the Danes who played in Florida are sophomores, and they arrived at UAlbany from all over the map: Surrey, British Columbia (Lee), Epping, Essex, England (Henry), Biarritz, France (Juillat), Seltjarnarnes, Iceland (Einarsdottir) and Honolulu (Espino).

The other team member, senior Tiffany Kuroki, is from West Covina, Calif. She did not play in the MAAC Championship because of "disciplinary issues," Cashman-McSween said.

"First and foremost, we're trying to build the program for the future," said Cashman-McSween, who won her second MAAC Coach of the Year honor this season. "You have to get everybody to buy into that, to wanting to commit to building a program better than the year before. We have such a great team atmosphere. You have to buy into the family portion.

"That's what I sell a lot. Recruits come in and they don't really believe we can be as close as we really are. I always tell them, we're not making that up. It really is true. Because they are from so far away, I always try to point out that I, too, am here from far away (Fort Lauderdale, Fla.). I give up a lot to do my job. If they don't think I'm serious about it, they're crazy."

Eighteen teams are assigned to each regional, and the top six in each advance to the national championship May 18-23 at Karsten Creek Golf Club in Stillwater, Okla.