The NCAA implemented the .500 rule for postseason eligibility before this season, meaning a team must have more head-to-head wins than losses to qualify for regional play.

So in spite of a seventh-place finish at the Big Ten championships, No. 5 seed UCLA women’s golf was able to qualify for NCAA regionals after losing its veteran stars during the season – Zoe Antoinette Campos and Caroline Canales – to the LPGA. The Bruins will tee off at the Birdwood Golf Course in Charlottesville, Virginia, for NCAA regionals Monday.

“A lot of people on the outside looking in are looking at us like we don’t really have a chance to make it through regionals,” said coach Alicia Um Holmes. “We’re ranked inside the top 20. So, if you just go off that, the top 30 teams are the 30 teams making it to nationals. I’m not sure why everybody’s counting us out, but we’re not paying too much attention to the outside noise.”

To qualify for the NCAA championships, hosted at the Omni La Costa Resort & Spa in Carlsbad, California, the Bruins must place within the regional’s top five teams. Last season, UCLA progressed all the way to the tournament finale after a fourth-place finish at regionals, ultimately falling to Stanford and finishing the year as national runners-up.

UCLA is ranked 27th of the teams qualified for the NCAA regionals and will compete against 11 other programs at the Charlottesville regional – trailing No. 4 South Carolina, No. 11 Virginia, No. 16 Ole Miss and No. 21 Florida in the national polls.

“Going into regionals, we are kind of the underdog because for the conference, we needed to finish seventh place or better to make it in,” said freshman Angela Liu. “Having no expectations going into this and just playing our best and see how the results turn out.”

Charlottesville’s Birdwood Golf Course is entirely unfamiliar to the Bruin lineup.

“The greens here are pretty big,” said senior Natalie Vo. “So hitting them in the right quadrant would be really nice, because they’re pretty slope-y. And then also being able to hit the fairway more times than not would give us a little bit of an advantage.”

Because of the team’s unfamiliarity with the course, UCLA’s starting lineup is generally undecided. Because the NCAA allows substitutions in the postseason, UCLA will bring six players to Charlottesville, but only five will play.

“It might be favorable for Meghan (senior Meghan Royal), Maye (freshman Maye Huang) and Angela to be in the lineup for sure,” Um Holmes said. “And then just see whose game is sharp between the other three. The other three aren’t as long of hitters as the three I mentioned.”

And with seven Bruins on the roster, one member will have to stay behind in Westwood.

“With regionals, there’s always someone to sub in for us,” Liu said. “We can fall back on our teammates.”

Postseason play brings in a farewell for seniors like Royal, Vo and Tiffany Le. Playing at the national championships could be a fitting end to Royal’s career, with Omni La Costa Resort & Spa being her home course.

“I’m sure they’re feeling a little bit of sadness as we approach the end of their college careers,” Um Holmes said. “But they haven’t really led on to that. They’re being pretty stoic in their approaches. And if anything, it makes them hyper-focused. They know it’s the very end, so they’re going to try their very best.”