Big East Champs Welch and Xavier to Play in NCAA Las Vegas Regional

Bella McCauley isn't the only Minnesotan who will be playing in the Women's NCAA regionals next week. Teams that win conference championships get automatic bids for the regionals, and Xavier won a fifth consecutive Big East Conference title last week, thanks in no small part to Emma Welch, the Big East individual champion.

As a result of winning their conference title, the Muskateers will be playing in the Las Vegas Regional, May 6-8 at the Spanish Trail Country Club. They are the No. 11 seed. The Xavier women will be trying to play their way into the NCAA Championships, May 17-22, at the Omni La Costa Resort & Spa (Champions Course) in Carlsbad, Calif.

Welch, a junior from Lakeville North, was named to the Big East All-Academic team in each of her first two years at Xavier (she's an Early Childhood Education major), but she didn't play much as a freshman, and she played in only two tournaments as a sophomore, averaging 79.67 strokes per round. But she seemed to find something last summer. She finished second to Kathryn VanArragon in the Minnesota Womens State Amateur -- VanArragon had to go 4 under on the back nine the final day of the tournament at Baker National to beat Welch by one shot -- and then third, behind VanArragon and Betsy Kellly, in the Women's State Open.

By the end of the 2023 season, she was second on the MGA Women's Player of the Year points list (with 350 points), behind only VanArragon (450).

As impressive as she was last summer, however, she didn't exactly set college golf on fire duriing the 2023-24 season. Welch had no top-10s in her two-plus years at Xavier before she finished ninth in the UNF Collegiate in early March. But she got off to a nice start in the Big East Conference tournament with an opening round of 1-under-par 71 at Callawassie Island Golf Club in Okatie, S.C. Basically, she won the confernce title on the second day, when she shot 66, easily the best 18-hole score of the tournament. She followed that with a 76 in the third round and held on to win by two shots over Morgan Smith of Georgetown, 213 (even par) to 215.

Xavier went wire to wire in winning the team title. The Muskateers took the lead with a first-day aggregate of 292, and followed that with 288 (even par) the second day, and 301 on the third day, the most difficult for scoring. That 301 matched second-place Georgetown for the best score of the final day and enabled the Muskateers to hold on and win the team championship by two strokes, 881 to 883 for the Hoyas. Seton Hall was a distant third, 23 shots behind Georgetown at 906, and it was yet another 19 shots back to fourth-place Butler at 925.