Laura Ianello likes the odds as Wildcats head east to Raleigh Regional for NCAAs

When Laura Ianello looked at the NCAA bracket, odds were high that the Wildcats would be heading east as only one of the six regionals was on the West Coast — in Pullman, Washington.

If she were betting, she would have won big as the NCAA announced Wednesday morning that No. 5 seed Arizona is headed to the Raleigh Regional to be played May 5-8.

“We are very excited to go to North Carolina,” Ianello said. “It was very East Coast-favored, so I knew no matter what we had 1-in-6 odds of staying on the West Coast. I almost predicted we would have to leave a day early.”

Wake Forest is the No. 1 seed in the regional. Arizona State is No. 2, and Florida State and Florida round out the top four seeds. Stanford, still the odds-on favorite to win back-to-back championships, is the No. 1 seed at Washington State.

The Wildcats are vying for their fourth national title and have participated in the NCAAs 30 consecutive times. They won it all in 1996, 2000 and 2018 and were runners-up in 1992 and 2002. Ianello has won as a golfer (2000) and as a coach (2018) at her alma mater.

Arizona is looking to get back to championship play at Grayhawk Golf Club in Scottsdale after just missing the cut last season. Had the new rule been in effect — expanding the field from 24 to 30 teams — UA would have made it last season.

“The men’s tournament has had 30 teams the last I don’t know how many years, and so it’s really great to see the equality piece come together where there’s equal men’s and women’s teams that get to compete for the national championship,” Ianello said.

In the previous 10 years, Arizona only missed playing in the final rounds twice — 2017 and 2020, when the NCAAs were cancelled because of the pandemic.

While Arizona, which was ranked No. 27 in the nation by Golfweek heading into the NCAAs, has never played on the Lonnie Poole Golf Course at NC State, the Wildcats still have some familiarity with the style of the course.

“It’s an Arnold Palmer-designed golf course — big fairways, fairway bunkers. (It’s) very similar to what we see here in Tucson with other courses,” Ianello said. “Bermuda grass, which we’re also accustomed to playing on.”

Ianello carefully plans her schedule each season so her team can get used to playing on different courses and surfaces, because golf can be very different in the Midwest and East Coast. This year the Wildcats played in Chicago, Tennessee, Florida and Kansas, as well as Hawaii and Mexico.

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Over the next week before heading to North Carolina, the Wildcats will practice at their new home, Tucson Country Club. Ianello wants them to get used to “playing more traditional Parkland-type golf courses.”

The Wildcats have momentum heading into the NCAAs with a fourth-place finish in the Pac-12 Championships last week. They went into the final round tied for first place.

Ianello said it was definitely a confidence booster.

“You could see this sigh of relief in our ladies that they remembered that they can win, they are a championship team and that they have the ability to play well together,” Ianello said. “Because we’ve had a lot of individuals success here and there this year. ... As a team we’ve had a couple chances to win, but at conference it was like this amazing reminder that the ladies are insanely talented and that we can go out, we can win an NCAA regional. We can be in contention to win Pac-12. And then we can have a good look at winning nationals again in May. All good stuff.”

Asked if her team would make it to Scottsdale, Ianello said: “Definitely.”

Chip shots

UA will head to NC State a day early to acclimate to the time difference. All teams are allowed to play one practice round on the course.

The Wildcats have a young lineup with only one senior — Gile Bite Starkute. Starkute has plenty of experience in the NCAAs as two years ago she nailed a putt from the edge of the green to birdie the hole and upset Stanford 1-up in extra holes to give UA a spot in the the semifinals at Grayhawk. Two freshmen (Nena Wongthanavimok and Julia Misemer) and two sophomores (Carolina Melgrati and Lilas Pinthier) round out the squad.

“Team chemistry is is really strong,” Ianello said. “We’re young. I think we’re continuing to learn about each other and learn about each other’s styles on the golf course. We’re a mixture of ethnicities and cultures with being from Thailand and Kansas and Lithuania, Italy and France and Argentina. So it’s it’s a lot of different languages. It’s a lot of different types of foods that everybody likes, and it’s fun.”

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