Yu-Sang Hou

Yu-Sang Hou's return to the Wildcats is "going to make everybody work harder,โ€ said coach Laura Ianello.

The Arizona Wildcats entered the final round of the NCAA Regionals needing to hold off Florida to capture the sixth and final advancing spot and earn a spot in the NCAA Championships.

They did just that โ€” and more. The Wildcats fired a 5-under as a team, leap-frogged to fifth place and advanced comfortably out of the Stanford, California, regional. Arizona finished the three-round tournament with a 5-over par 857; the Wildcats join Stanford (-28), Wake Forest (+2), Oklahoma State (+3), Virginia Tech (+4), and USC (+8) in advancing; Florida, which entered Wednesday's final round trailing the Wildcats by a stroke, shot even-par and finished seventh, one stroke behind USC.

The UA was led by Yu-Sang Hou, who fired a 66 after going 70-71 in the first two rounds. Therese Warner shot a 70 and Ya Chun Chang shot a 71; Vivian Hou (71) and Gile Bite Starkute (72) round out the Wildcats' performers. Yu-Sang Hou's three-day score of 207 was nine strokes better than Arizona's second-best finisher.

The Wildcats won't have to travel far for the NCAA Championships. The season's biggest tournament begins May 21 at Grayhawk Golf Club in Scottsdale.


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