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Bradley's women's golf team narrowly missed the NCAA Regionals but received an invitation to the National Golf Invitational. This marks their first postseason appearance as a team in 20 years, despite challenges like missing graduation for two seniors.
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If there is such a thing as postseason whiplash, the Bradleyâs womenâs golf team lived it on April 22. The Braves had just come agonizingly close to winning the Missouri Valley Conference Championship for an Automatic Qualifying spot into NCAA Regionals. They only missed by one shot.
Given that, the drive home to Peoria, Illinois, from TPC Deere Run in Silvis was a long one. And then the pendulum swung the other way when head coach Halley Morell found an invitation to the National Golf Invitational in her inbox the next morning.
âEmotions were all over the place even then,â Morrell said. âObviously thereâs new excitement but still reeling from the emotions the day before. It was definitely an emotional week.â
The opportunity to compete in the NGI for the first time in history â and to compete in the postseason as a team for the first time in 20 years â was an about-face that Bradleyâs women couldnât turn down, even if it meant working out a lot of details. The two seniors on Bradleyâs team, Caroline McConnell and Allison Pacocha, will miss graduation. Other plans, like internships, needed reshuffling. But ultimately, itâs a second chance for an ending more fitting to the body of work Bradley authored over the past eight months.
If ever in Bradley history there was a season that deserved to continue into May, this is it. Conference close-call aside, Bradley finished inside the top 5 five other times, most notably at the Rio Verde Invitational in February when the team came from behind to beat Xavier, a top-75 program, down the stretch.
âThereâs so much good that happened that can be a little bit overshadowed when the conference doesnât go this way,â Morrell said. âI thought the NGI was a great opportunity to finish the season on a little bit of a better note and really cap it off in what the season was, which was a really great season.â
The National Golf Invitational will be played May 15-17 at Ak-Chin Southern Dunes Golf Club in Maricopa, Arizona â roughly an hour from the site of Bradleyâs Rio Verde title. Morrell said her team has loved dessert golf every time she has taken a squad to that event, a detail that already gives Bradley a leg up for the NGI â not to mention what happened in February.
âIt was cool to watch them go believe in themselves like that,â Morrell said of the exciting finish three months ago. âAnd to just go do it and to prove that they can compete with anybody in the country. That memory absolutely was really, really special.â
Bradley banked some important feels from the MVC Championship, too, painful as a one-shot runner-up finish turned out to be.
They missed qualifying by just one shot at the Missouri Valley Conference Championship.
It's their first postseason appearance as a team in 20 years, providing a chance to rewrite their season's ending.
The seniors are Caroline McConnell and Allison Pacocha.
They had to rearrange plans for graduation and internships to participate in the tournament.
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Sometimes, as Morrell pointed out, such an experience can translate into something better the next time.
âWe talk about winning a lot and this team has won a lot, but you almost have to feel what it feels like to be in that position to be able to execute it the next time,â she said. â. . . Itâs experience.â
A year ago, then-sophomore Jillian Cosler won the MVC individual title and earned a spot in the NCAA Columbus Regional. This season, Cosler was one of four players to make every start for the Braves. She joined seniors McConnell and Pacocha plus Alyssa Mixon as a reliable foursome.
McConnell and Pacocha have shaped the team profoundly in their time at Bradley. McConnell started her college career at Michigan State but entered the transfer portal after two years and rekindled a recruiting conversation with Morrell that brought her back to her home state.
Sheâs a workhorse, Morrell says, with a 4.0 GPA to go along with the teamâs leading scoring average and five top-10 finishes in her senior season.
Pachoca, meanwhile, has been a local gem all along. The Eureka, Illinois, native won a state high school championship as a sophomore before committing to Bradley. Once there, she has steadily improved her game to become a rock-solid starter for the Braves.
âWhatâs cool about this team when people ask me about it, any of the five in the lineup can shoot par on any given day,â Morrell said. âI havenât had that here. Typically, you have your one or two or three deep and weâve seen it this year. You can look at any of the girls who have been basically in the top 5, they can throw up a 70 or a 71 on any given day which is pretty neat and what has made this team very successful.â
This week, they all have a chance to rewrite an ending to a season that will certainly go down in the books.
This article originally appeared on Golfweek: Bradley, coming off an all-time season, can rewrite the ending at NGI