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Northwestern women's golf advances, but Illinois falters

Northwestern will be the only "home team" when the NCAA women's golf championship tees off at Rich Harvest Farms in Sugar Grove on May 19.

Coach Emily Fletcher's Wildcats earned their fifth straight berth in the finals with a strong finish at the Athens, Georgia Regional on Wednesday. Posting the low round on the final day of the 54-hole competition, the Wildcats climbed into second place behind top-seeded Alabama.

The top six teams in each of four regionals advanced to Rich Harvest. NU went into the regional as a No. 5 seed but edged Michigan State, the Big Ten champion, by a stroke in regional play. Michigan State had only a No. 14 seed in the 18-team regional competition.

Northwestern, which had its best-ever finish in the NCAA tournament with a tie for ninth last year, placed three players in the top 12 on the University of Georgia's home course. Sarah Cho tied for fifth place, Hanna Kim tied for eighth and Kacie Komoto tied for 12th. Stephanie Lau and Janet Mao rounded out the NU squad.

Alabama won the tournament with a 6-under-par 858 score. NU was at 871.

Illinois, which also earned an NCAA bid, didn't survive the Albuquerque, New Mexico Regional. The Illini finished in 11th place, 18 strokes behind champion Stanford. Siyun Liu and Grace Park led the Illini, finishing in a tie for 27th in the individual competition.

The women's NCAA finals will be played for the first time in the Chicago area when two weeks of competition tees off at Rich Harvest. The women's competition is from May 19-24 and the men's finals follow from May 26-31.

• For more golf news, visit lenziehmongolf.com. Len can be contacted by email at lenziehm@gmail.com. Follow him on Twitter @ZiehmLen and check out his posts at Facebook.com/lenziehmongolf.

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