CHAMPAIGN, Ill. – The Illinois women's golf team will head to Albuquerque, New Mexico, for NCAA Regional play. The Fighting Illini will play 54 holes against 17 other teams on The Championship Golf Course at the University of New Mexico (Par 72, 6,637 yards).

"We stick to our process, so we have gathered as much information as we can with regards to the golf course in New Mexico to aid us in our preparation so we can focus on some specific areas," said head coach Renee Slone. "It's a bit more of a stressful week, trying to focus on final exams and get those all squared away. All in all, everyone is balancing everything and managing their time well, and doing all the things they can to be fully prepared."

32nd-ranked Illinois will compete against No. 1 Stanford, No. 6 USC, No. 9 Duke, No. 16 Miami (Florida), No. 17 Oklahoma State, No. 24 NC State, No. 26 California, No. 36 Pepperdine, No. 40 Washington, No. 41 SMU, No. 48 Campbell, No. 49 Denver, Cal Poly, Houston Baptist, New Mexico State, Sacramento State and Texas Southern.

Six individuals will also play in the regional, with Martina Edberg of Cal State Fullerton, Gonzaga's Bianca Pagdanganan, Jess Yuen of Missouri, Fresno State's Gurdun Bjorgvinsdottir, Paige Lee of UC Davis and Santa Clara's Kristin Le rounding out the field. The top six teams, and the top three individuals not on one of those six teams, will advance to the NCAA Championships set for May 19-24 at Rich Harvest Farms in Sugar Grove, Illinois.

Making the trip for Illinois to the Albuquerque Regional will be Dana Gattone, Swing Liu, Tristyn Nowlin, Grace Park, Jan Prapassarangkul and Bing Singhsumalee.

"You always want to bounce back from a less than desirable performance," Slone said. "I think for many, with this week behind them, will be a bit of a relief so they can fully focus on what lies ahead with the tournament. We have talked about this season as a whole, and some of the things they have accomplished and what we are capable of. The motivation levels are very high. We definitely want to play at Rich Harvest Farm with the NCAA Championships being here in Illinois."

The first round of play will begin Monday at 8:30 a.m. CT, with the second round set for 8:30 a.m. CT on Tuesday and the final 18 holes are slated for 8:30 a.m. CT on Wednesday.

Live stats will be available on Golfstat, and a recap of each day will be available on FightingIllini.com