SCOTTSDALE, Ariz. – No. 23 Arizona Women's Golf will begin its quest for the program's fourth national championship beginning at 6:30 a.m. (MST) on Friday, May 19 when it tees off at the NCAA Championships at Grayhawk Golf Club. The Wildcats, who won their last national title in 2018, advanced to the national tournament after winning the NCAA Raleigh Regional last week at NC State University.

"Our team is very excited to make the return back up to Scottsdale as our ladies have been finishing the season on a high note," said head coach Laura Ianello. "We are anxious and eager to get up there and show what this team has in store. Our team has showed what momentum can do when they really fine tuned their games before Pac-12's and almost won the Pac-12 Championships. That led us into Raleigh where we played really good golf, but I don't feel that we have played out best golf yet."

Arizona began its recent run of strong performances at the Pac-12 Championships in April, which were also played in the Phoenix area. The Wildcats led after the first two days before finishing in fourth place, which set up their strong week at NCAA Regionals in North Carolina. The regional championship was Arizona's sixth in program history and first since 2010 as freshman Julia Misemer played a dominant 54 holes. She finished tied for second after carding back-to-back rounds of 68 that marked the lowest rounds by an Arizona freshman at NCAA Regionals since 2003. Her runner-up performance was also the best finish by a Wildcat in NCAA postseason play since Alison Walshe won the 2008 UC Davis Regional.

Head coach Laura Ianello will utilize the same five-player lineup from Pac-12 Championships and NCAA Regionals that features Gile Bite Starkute, Carolina Melgrati, Lilas Pinthier, Julia Misemer and Nena Wongthanavimok. Starkute, a senior from Lithuania, is the only member of the roster with previous NCAA Championship experience as part of Arizona's 2021 team that reached the semifinals of match play. She sent the Wildcats to the Elite Eight with a national television highlight of sinking a 30-foot putt from the fringe in Arizona's playoff versus Stanford to advance.

The Wildcats punched their ticket to NCAA Championships this season for a ninth time in 12 seasons under head coach Laura Ianello. Named to the WGCA National Coach of the Year Watch List earlier this week, Ianello guided Arizona to the national title in 2018 and was a student-athlete on the 2000 national championship team. She coached the team to the match play portion of the championships in 2018, 2019, and 2021, which made Arizona the only team in the nation to reach the Elite Eight in all three of those seasons.

The format of the NCAA Championships consists of 54 holes of stroke play over three days to open. The field is cut down to 15 teams prior to a fourth round of stroke play before the top eight teams advance to match play. The Golf Channel's live coverage of the event begins on Monday, May 22.

Arizona will be paired with Oklahoma State and Virginia for Friday's opening round, beginning on the first hole at Grayhawk at 6:32 a.m. (MST). The NCAA Championships are free for fans to attend.