Shorthanded Arizona women's golf to lean on seniors at Stanford Regional

Arizona star and All-Big 12 first-team selection Charlotte Back, a junior from Heidelberg, Germany, suffered (ironically) a back injury just before the Big 12 championship in Dallas last month.

As the Wildcats prepare to play at Stanford Golf Course for the Stanford Regional — a course they played in October — Monday through Wednesday, they'll have four seniors and two freshmen in the starting lineup: seniors Nena Wongthanavimok, Julia Misemer, Maria Cabanillas and Angela Arora, with freshmen Kinsley Ni and Sara Vitasek rounding out the lineup.

"We're putting her health first," second-year Arizona head coach Giovana Maymon said of Back. "Sometimes it happens in sports. Sadly, we don't have her here, but we're playing for her. We have four seniors in our lineup, so I think this means a lot for them.

"I'm very excited about this week for our four seniors. We haven't really had the four of them in the lineup (this season), so it looks a little bit different than when we were here in the fall."

Arizona hoped to have Back, a two-time All-Big 12 selection, for the postseason, but "when we got the diagnosis for her back, if we pushed it too much and if she was in so much pain, it would've taken way too much time for her to recover," Maymon said.

"She's feeling better and feels great, but the moment she starts swinging, it hurts," Maymon added. "For her, it was very important for us to support her. The timing of it sucks, for sure, but it happens. How you react to this makes a big difference for her senior year. We're trying to make the best for her and we're sad that she's missing this.

"I think this can help this team play for more than just themselves — and play for a teammate that would give everything to be here and gave everything this year for all of them."

Even though the Wildcats are shorthanded this week, "we got the best regional we could possibly get in terms of being in the same time zone, going to a course we played in the fall," Maymon said.

Arizona finished seventh at the Stanford Intercollegiate in October, the Wildcats' final event of the fall. Back, Wongthanavimok and Ni all finished tied for 15th at the Stanford Intercollegiate.

"We played pretty well on the course, we know it," Maymon said. "There's a lot of positives to it. It's a challenging course. This course is going to require a lot of focus and minimizing mistakes. That's the key for our team. That was the message: let's just be the most focused and prepared. If you make a mistake, it's not a big deal. Make it a bogey, no more than that.

"The little things make a big difference in the Regionals. If we can be clean, that's the goal this week. We're excited about this chapter. It looks a little different, but that's not necessarily a bad thing. ... It's a good ball-striking course and our kids can hit it very well. The good thing is, it's not about going low and going crazy, it's about staying clean. That's what I'm looking forward to."

The Wildcats "have been a little up and down" in the spring, Maymon said. Arizona's best team finish was finishing second at the Westbrook Invitational in Peoria. A year after winning the Big 12 championship in Maymon's first season, the Wildcats finished 11th at the conference championship.

After third- and second-place finishes to start the season, the Wildcats finished 14th, fourth, 11th, seventh and 11th at tournaments leading up to the NCAA postseason. Arizona is ranked No. 33 in the Scoreboard rankings for Division I teams.

If sixth-seeded Arizona finishes in the top five, the Wildcats will advance to the NCAA championships at Omni La Costa Resort in Carlsbad, California. The Wildcats are seeded behind top-seeded Stanford, No. 2 Pepperdine, No. 3 Vanderbilt, No. 4 Arizona State and No. 5 Missouri. Cal State Fullerton, Illinois, Oregon State, Cal Poly, South Dakota State and Navy round out the Stanford Regional.

Arizona's senior-led lineup "is awesome and it means a lot for these kids, as they go into the professional world," Maymon said.

"It's all or nothing," said Arizona's head coach. "This is it. This is it for them. It's funny, we have four seniors and two freshmen in our lineup. We didn't plan it that way, but that's how it ended. We're hoping this could be a good push for them.

"This is the end for them, but we're not done yet. That's what I tell them. Let's finish something well. I know we didn't have the best semester, but it can be fixed by a good ending."