The University of Illinois Springfield women's golf team defeated Indianapolis in the final match of GLVC Championship Match Play on Sunday. The Prairie Stars earned a 3-2 victory and their first conference title in program history.

UIS advanced to the match play semifinals by finishing third in stroke play for the sixth time since 2016. The No. 3 seeded Prairie Stars then defeated the No. 2 Missouri-St. Louis Tritons by a score of 3-2 to advance to the match play final for the first time. UIS had not defeated UMSL since October 2020 and trailed the Tritons at nearly every competition in 2022-23. 



UIS was then put to the task of ending a streak of ten consecutive championships held by the Indianapolis Greyhounds (UIndy). Indianapolis, ranked No. 11 in the latest WGCA national ranking, completed a clean sweep of No. 4 Drury in the semifinal round. "We were excited to beat UMSL to move on which is a huge accomplishment in general," said senior transfer Bobbi Uhl, "we knew based on UIndy's match in the morning versus Drury that we would have to make pars and make them have to make birdies."

Freshman Elaine Grant led her opponents through 25 of 36 holes on Sunday and was tied for seven of the eleven holes she did not lead on. Heather McLean, paired with the 2022 GLVC Champion, led her opponent for all 18 holes of the match play finals and won 72-79 in a crucial third match. 

Bobbi Uhl, who trailed for 16 holes in the final, came in clutch with stellar putting to clinch the fourth match by a single stroke. The Manitoba native was faced with a seven foot putt that would ultimately win the championship for the Prairie Stars. 



"It was just phenomenal how good they were on the biggest stage," said second year Head Coach Michael Leotta. "We got through 15 holes and the 16th felt like a match we had to have. Elaine hit that putt on 17 to match her opponent's birdie to keep 1 up. Once we got that match we knew we had a chance, but knew we had to turn one of the last two matches at four and five. Bobbi was just working her way back after being one down through 16. She ended up making a 15-footer for birdie on 17 and that was the point where we knew how good our chance was. Bobbi was confident in her putt on 18, and that putt did it. Otherwise, it would've gone to a tie and Katelyn Skinner (UIndy) ended up winning match 5. It started with Elaine on 16 making that putt and ended with Bobbi drilling that 7-footer. That 30 minutes was pretty crazy."

UIS women's golf has qualified for the NCAA Regional, which it will host at Panther Creek on May 8-10. UIS has qualified in previous years, but has earned its first automatic regional qualification in 2023. "This is huge in a lot of ways for the program," said Leotta, "not only was it our first conference championship, but it shows what Frank (Marsaglia) built here and what he had in teams from 2010 and on. For the alumni that played through those years and built it up to this point, getting here was really special. Last night was special for me and a lot of alumni, I think it is a credit to everybody in the program from Frank to the current group."