NCAA Waco Regional Begins Monday For No. 8 Ducks

WACO, Texas - The No. 8 ranked Oregon women's golf team will look to punch its ticket to the 2026 NCAA Championships as the Ducks tee it up as the No. 2 seed at the NCAA Waco Regional beginning on Monday.

The top five teams following three rounds of stroke play at Ridgewood Country Club will advance to the NCAA Championships, set for May 22-27 at Omni La Costa Resort and Spa in Carlsbad, Calif. Oregon is one of four teams in the 12-team field currently ranked in the top 25, along with No. 4 Texas A&M, No. 16 Tennessee and No. 21 SMU. Baylor, the host school and No. 5 seed, is just outside the top 25 at No. 26.

2026 NCAA Waco Regional
Monday, May 11 - Wednesday, May 13
Waco, Texas | Ridgewood Country Club
12 Teams | Par 70, 6,094 Yards
Format: Three rounds of stroke play; 18 holes each day; Top five teams advanc

Teeing Off for the Ducks (Scoring Average)
1. Kiara Romero (69.37)
2. Tong An (72.36)
3. Sophie Han (72.73)
4. Karen Tsuru (72.67)
5. Darae Chung (73.04)
Alt. Shyla Singh (74.14)

The Field (12 Teams)
#4 Texas A&M (1), #8 Oregon (2), #16 Tennessee (3), #21 SMU (4), Baylor (5), LSU (6), TCU (7), Tulsa (8), Colorado (9), Northern Arizona (10), Tarleton State (11), Prairie View A&M (12).

How to Follow
Live scoring for the NCAA Waco Regional will be available on Scoreboard Live, and live updates throughout the tournament will be provided on Twitter at @OregonWGolf.

Expected Excellence
Oregon is making its 18th consecutive NCAA Regional appearance, reaching the NCAA Regional stage every year since 2008 with the exception of the 2019-20 season that was cut short due to the COVID-19 pandemic. The Ducks are making their 30th all-time NCAA Regional appearance, and will look to advance to the NCAA Championships for the fifth year in a row and 15th time in program history. Oregon has advanced through stroke play into match play at the NCAA Champoinships four times since 2016, reaching at least the national semifinals in three of the last four years and each of the last two.

How They Got Here
Oregon has put together another terrific season in 2025-26, the eighth year under head coach Derek Radley. The Ducks have placed in the the top five in nine of their 10 tournaments, with a ninth-place finish at the Big Ten Championships snapping a streak of 21 consecutive top-five showings dating back to the start of 2024-25. Oregon won the prestigious East Lake Cup in the fall, the 12th tournament win under Radley, and has also recorded four runner-up finishes and seven total top-three showings.

All-Big Ten Ducks
Oregon was well-represented in the postseason Big Ten awards, headlined by a pair of first-team all-conference selections in junior Kiara Romero and sophomore Tong An. Romero joined Hsin-Yu Lu as the only players in program history to be three-time, first-team all-conference honorees, while An received her first career first-team selection. Freshman Sophie Han was named to the all-Big Ten second team as well as the inaugural Big Ten all-freshman team, and junior Darae Chung was Oregon's Big Ten Sportsmanship Award recipient.

Kiara Romero - Best in the World
Already arguably the greatest player in program history, junior Kiara Romero has solidified her standing as the No. 1 ranked amateur women's golfer in the world. Romero is the first two-time, first-team all-American in Oregon history, and she is the reigning Big Ten Women's Golfer of the Year after winning the individual conference title and leading Oregon to the Big Ten team championship last spring. Romero has shot par-or-better in 68 of her 84 rounds as a Duck while posting 35 rounds in the 60s, and she holds the program record with six career wins after winning twice so far this spring. As a sophomore last season, Romero won both the Big Ten and NCAA Gold Canyon Regional individual titles en route to leading the Ducks to the conference championship and a trip to the national semifinals at the NCAA Championships. In 29 stroke-play tournaments as a Duck, Romero has six wins, seven runner-up finishes, 21 top-10 finishes and 27 top-20 showings. Romero leads the Ducks this season with a 69.37 scoring average, shooting par-or-better in 18 of 21 rounds with two wins, six top-10 finishes and seven top-20 showings in eight tournaments.

Romero Claims All-Time Wins Record
Star junior Kiara Romero continued to solidify her standing as the best player in program history this spring, running away with the individual title at the Charles Schwab Women's Collegiate Invitational while leading UO to a runner-up finish. Romero extended her own Oregon all-time record with her sixth career win, two more than any other player in program history. It was the second win of the season for Romero, who now has two victories in each of her first three years as a Duck. Romero entered the final round in a tie for the lead before making four birdies and just one bogey in the final round to win by five strokes at 6 under. Romero broke the all-time record of four wins she previously shared with Kendra Little (2008-11), winning the individual title at the Chevron Collegiate by four strokes while helping Oregon to a second-place finish. Romero shot 11-under par for the week while shooting under par in all three rounds, jumping out to an early lead with a 6-under 66 in the first roound.

Romero Racking Up The Records
Not even through three full seasons, junior Kiara Romero has rewritten the Oregon women's golf record book. The San Jose native has broken the program single-season records for both scoring average and birdies in each of her first two seasons, shattering her own records for both with a 69.91 scoring average and 138 birdies in 2024-25. Romero also owns the single-season records for par-3 (2.95, 2023-24), par-4 (3.99, 2024-25) and par-5 (4.63, 2024-25) scoring, and she fired the lowest individual round in program history last season with an astounding 10-under 62 in the second round of the NCAA Gold Canyon Regional. Romero's career scoring average of 70.12 is on pace to shatter the current program record of 72.82 held by Briana Chacon, and she has set the Oregon all-time record for career wins with six after winning twice this spring. Romero also became the eighth player in program history earlier this spring to surpass 300 career birdies, and she has moved into a tie for No. 4 all-time with 341 as a Duck. Romero's seven career eagles are also just one shy of matching the Oregon all-time record. So far, Romero owns four of the 15 lowest individual rounds ever by a Duck as well as five of the 12 lowest 54-hole individual totals, including a 16-under 200 at the NCAA Gold Canyon Regional last year that was the second-lowest 54-hole score in Oregon history.

Numbers to Know
6 - Kiara Romero extended her Oregon all-time record with her sixth career win at the Charles Schwab Women's Collegiate Invitational.
18 - The Ducks are making their 18th consecutive NCAA Regional appearance, qualifying every year since 2008, and 30th all-time appearance.
34 - Oregon has one win and four runner-up finishes in 2025-26, and has placed in the top two 34 times under HC Derek Radley (since 2018-19).
341 - Kiara Romero is tied for fourth in Oregon history with 341 career birdies, just 36 shy of the all-time record (377, Cassy Isagawa)