Following its quarterfinal loss in the SEC Championships, Vanderbilt Women’s Golf traveled to Palo Alto, California, for the NCAA Regional round, hosted by Stanford from May 11-13. The Commodores were slotted as the No. 3 seed in the 12-team field, playing a par-71, 6,271-yard setup at Stanford Golf Course.
Starting for the Black and Gold were Lynn Lim, Ava Merrill, Sara Im, Angelina Tolentino and Kathryn Ha. Elizabeth Rudisill made the trip as the team’s alternate.
The top-five finishing teams after three days of stroke play would advance to the NCAA Championship at Omni La Costa in Carlsbad, California.
The ’Dores posted a 2-over 286 as a team in the first round, placing fourth on the leaderboard. Im led the way with a 2-under 69, while Merrill and Ha followed with rounds of 1-over. Lim rounded out the four-person score with a 2-over 73.
“Not a bad little start to the week but I actually didn’t think we looked very sharp, so I feel pretty good about where we’re at,” head coach Greg Allen said after day one. “We definitely need to clean some things up. We’re usually a pretty good driving team and I felt like some of our tee shots got us in trouble today. I also felt like we can be better with our chipping.”
Vanderbilt just about maintained its pace on day two, shooting a 1-over 285, while staying in fourth place overall. The team was 5-over after the first nine holes but fought back on the back nine.
This included a 3-under day from Merrill, which included six birdies. She finished her day in 12th place individually. Ha and Lim shot even-par 71s, but Im struggled with a 4-over 75. Rudisill, who substituted for Tolentino, also did not fare well — shooting a 76.
“I’m really proud of how we stayed patient and weathered the storm,” Allen said about the second round. “That could have gotten out of hand at the turn. We sure didn’t look very good on our front nine. Our ball striking wasn’t great, and we didn’t take advantage of the par fives like we did yesterday.”
On the final day of the tournament, Vanderbilt sat in a solid position after 10 holes — having gone 1-over as a squad during that stretch. Then, the heat of the moment set in. And the Commodores collapsed.
The Black and Gold shot 14-over on the final eight holes, finishing the day at 15-over. This disaster left the team eight strokes behind the cutline to Omni La Costa. Merrill, Im and Lim all shot 3-over 74s, while Ha and Tolentino posted 75 and 79, respectively.
“We will use today as a learning opportunity to make sure we don’t let this happen next year when we host. We’ve got to be better at doing the little things,” Allen said. “We made too many mistakes on and around the greens. Although we are disappointed, I do think we did a lot of good things this year and have so much to build on for next year.”
Stanford won the Regional at home with a whopping 42-under week. Pepperdine was next on the podium at 4-under.
Luckily for the Commodores, all six of their players from Palo Alto will return next year, giving Allen and company a chance to avenge this disappointing performance. This Vanderbilt team will be back in action for its 2026-27 revenge campaign in the fall.
