The postseason battle has just begun for the Illinois women’s golf team. The team will be traveling to Maineville, Ohio in just a few days for the Big Ten Championship.

The Illini are heading into this playoff battle after finishing with their two best overall team finishes this season. 

Three current Illini golfers have previously played in the last championship during the 2019 season. Junior Crystal Wang put up a strong performance during the tournament where she tied for eighth and tied for the fifth lowest 36-hole tournament total in program history.

As a team, they finished in second place with a total score of +2 and had four golfers finish in the top 15 during the 2019 Championship. Current senior Tristyn Nowlin was one of those golfers and managed to tie for eleventh place with a score of +1.

It’s Renee Slone’s 15th season as the head coach, and the former Illini legend has quite the resume.

She coached the Illini to two second place finishes at the Big Ten Championship during the 2018 and 2019 season, led the team to five of its seven overall NCAA Regional appearances and was named the 2019 Big Ten Coach of the Year.

The pandemic canceled last year’s Big Ten Championship and cut Nowlin’s final year short, which convinced her to return for a fifth year. 

During the Illini’s impressive 2019 postseason run, they advanced to the NCAA Regional tournament, where they placed fifth out of eighteen teams. The finish led them to reach the NCAA Championship for the first time in program history, where they tied for ninth place. 

This year’s NCAA Regional tournament will take place May 10-12, two weeks after the Big Ten Championship.

The final postseason tournament for the Illini this season will be the NCAA Championship in Scottsdale, Arizona May 21-26.

The postseason tournament is scheduled to take place April 23-25 and will be played at the TPC River’s Bend course. The first tee time is scheduled to begin at 8:30 a.m. central time Friday.

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