AIKEN, S.C. – Looking for its school-record fifth consecutive tournament championship, the No. 6 ranked Florida State women’s golf team begins play Monday in the Old Barnwell Match Play Championship at the Old Barnwell Golf Club. With eight of the top teams in the nation playing in the championship, the event utilizes a bracket style format over two days to determine a champion.

The No. 2 seeded Seminoles face No. 7 seeded Mississippi in the first round. On the same side of the bracket as the Seminoles and the Bulldogs are No. 3 seeded Wake Forest and No. 6 seeded Auburn. The top of the bracket contains No. 1 seeded South Carolina against No. 8 seeded Duke and No. 4 seeded Virginia and No. 5 seeded Ole Miss. Each of the teams will play two matches on Monday and one on Tuesday. The championship match begins at 9:24 a.m. on March 18.

“This is a very exciting event for our team because of the match play component that is part of ACC and National Championship events,” said Florida State head coach Amy Bond. “We’ve been successful in match play events and playing in the Old Barnwell Match Play Championship is going to be a tremendous experience for our entire team, especially our freshmen.”

A single-elimination match play component was added to the NCAA Division I Women’s Championship in 2015. With the championship component addition, the growth of in-season match-play events began, and has continued to, increase in popularity throughout college golf as teams prepare for their appearances in conference tournaments and the NCAA Championship.

The addition of match play to women’s golf on the college level has made for better play and gained more attention for the already popular sport. The championship has become even more popular with more people having access to watch the event now that the NCAA Championship is televised by the Golf Channel.

“In order to win a National Championship, we have to win three matches of match play,” said Bond. “Our regular season consists of mostly stroke play events. If we want to win, we have to win in both types of matches. Match play has a little different mental approach and an area we can be better in.”

Florida State has advanced to the match play championship round at the ACC Championships in two of the last four seasons and has advanced to match play in the NCAA Championship Finals in two of the last three seasons.

Florida State became the first NCAA team since the 2022-23 Sacramento State Hornets to win four consecutive championships with its victory at Briars Creek. The Seminoles are the 16^th team in NCAA women’s golf history to win four consecutive tournament titles.

Florida State has now won the team championships at the 2024 Landfall Tradition, the 2025 Collegiate Invitational, the 2025 Moon Invitational, and the 2025 Briars Creek Invitational in four consecutive tournament appearances.

The last team to win five consecutive tournament championships was USC during the 2013-14 season. A total of six teams have won five consecutive tournament championships; the NCAA record for consecutive championships is 10 by Arizona State during the 1994-95 season.

The Seminoles will be led by two of the world’s top players – Lottie Woad and Mirabel Ting – along with senior Kaylah Williams and freshmen Alexandra Gazzoli, Sophia Fullbrook, and Layla Pedrique in their lineup for the Old Barnwell.

Woad enters the tournament ranked No. 1 in the World Amateur Golf Ranking and No. 6 in the Scoreboard by Clipp’d college rankings. Ting is the No. 1 ranked college player and the No. 3 ranked amateur player in the world.

Ting won her fourth title at the Briars Creek Invitational with rounds of 67-66. She’s 34 under par in five starts this season with nine of 13 rounds in the 60s.

“I’m just trying to keep myself calm and when I’m calm, I’m able to think better and play better golf without expectations,” said Ting. “I have been working on mindset changes, swing changes and putting changes. I have seen improvement in my game over the past months.

“Playing with these girls; I’m just enjoying every minute of it.”

Results can be found at Golfstat.