College Preview: MSU Women
By Mike Carey
Year in and year out, Michigan State’s women’s golf team has continued to be not only one of the best in the Big Ten Conference, but among the top programs in the country under Head Coach Stacy Slobodnik-Stoll.
The Spartans finished the year ranked No. 28 in the Golfstat rankings, finished as the runner-up at the Big Ten Championships and played in the NCAA Stillwater Regional, the 22nd time since 1999 that the team reached the postseason.
The 2022-23 season should be no different, as the Spartans return its entire starting lineup from last year, led by fifth-year senior Valery Plata. An All-Big Ten First Team selection in 2022, Plata led the team with a 72.63 scoring average, the seventh-best single-season mark in program history. Plata, who won the Latin American Amateur in 2021, played in two LPGA events this summer and finished runner up at the first leg of LPGA Q-School in August.
Also returning is junior Leila Raines, who was an individual qualifier for the NCAA Championships last year. Raines was fourth on the team with a 74.56 scoring average and posted a pair of strong finishes, tying for 6th place at the Big Ten Championships and for 10th place at the NCAA Stillwater Regional, winning a playoff to reach the NCAA Championships.
Junior Valentina Rossi and sophomore Brooke Biermann, who both competed in the 2022 U.S. Women’s Amateur, will be back in the lineup. Rossi was third on the team with a 74.55 scoring average and tied for the team lead in rounds played (33). Biermann enjoyed a strong first season in East Lansing, posting a 73.94 scoring average that was second on the team and tying for the team lead in rounds played.
Junior Nina Rissi, who posted a 76.56 scoring average in seven events, and sophomore Katie Lu, who carried a 77.25 average and posted three top-20 finishes in the spring, are both back and will battle for a spot along with freshmen Paula Balanzategui and Caroline McConnell.
Former MSU men’s golfer Zach Rosendale, who was Michigan’s Mr. Golf in 2017 at St. Johns High School, was recently named assistant women’s golf coach to Stacy Slobodnik-Stoll. He is a 2021 graduate, and takes over for Caroline Powers-Ellis, who was named the head coach at Notre Dame earlier this summer.
