The Florida Tech women’s golf team, told in February the program was being eliminated, isn’t quite ready to turn in its scorecard just yet.
Florida Tech finished the regular season strong, battled through regionals and advanced out of stroke play at the NCAA Div. II women’s golf championships atop the leaderboard.
On Friday morning, the Panthers reached the national semifinals after defeating Findlay.
Then in the afternoon, Florida Tech rallied to take down Southwest Oklahoma State to reach the finals at PGA National in Palm Beach Gardens, Fla.
And now, Florida Tech will play for a national championship on Saturday in its final match in program history.
Florida Tech Athletics Director Bill Jurgens said in February that the cuts allow the university to better focus its finite athletic resources across the remaining 18 varsity sports.
The university considered many factors in deciding which varsity sports would be discontinued, Jurgens said, including the state of available facilities, squad size and potential to be competitive.
On April 10, Florida Tech won the Women’s Panther Invitational, the final home tournament in program history.
Five weeks later, it’s now on the doorstep of winning it all.
Florida Tech is taking on Cal State San Marcos, who knocked out the University of Indianapolis, the 2018 champ.
Florida Tech has never won the women’s golf title. In 2007, Daniela Iacobelli did win the individual national championship.
floridatoday.com contributed to this article.
