Michigan State Golf: Women’s team still in contention at NCAA Championships after Round 2

The women’s Michigan State Golf team finished round two and is still in contention to qualify for the fourth and final stroke play round.

The women’s Michigan State golf team finished their second round of play at the NCAA Championships om Saturday. The Spartans finished the day with a 6-over par score, putting them at 11-over for the tournament. This result moves them back to 19th place in the 30-team field.

Michigan State was once again led by Katie Lu who shot even-par for the second day in a row. Valentina Rossi shot 1-over and Brooke Briermann shot 2-over. Rounding out the Spartan lineup were Shannon Kennedy and Leila Raines who shot 3-over and 6-over, respectively. The Spartans started strong and made eight birdies in their opening nine holes. However, they struggled on hole five which saw four of the Spartan golfers card a bogey. The back-nine saw only three birdies carded by the Spartans. They also were able to avoid blowing up on one hole but still carded eight bogeys overall.

Michigan State is in a tough spot moving into round three on Sunday. The Spartans need to finish in the top 15 after Sunday’s round to advance to the final stroke play round. Thankfully for Michigan State, 15th-place Duke only has a 3-shot advantage on the Spartans. However, if the Spartans do qualify, they have a lot of work to do to make the match play round. Only the top eight teams qualify for the match play round, and Michigan State currently sits 13 shots behind eighth place.

First things first for Michigan State, it needs to move into the top 15 tomorrow. If the Spartans can accomplish that, they can turn their attention to making the match play round for the first time in program history.

Live results of Sunday’s third round can be found here: MSU women’s golf live results.