The ISU women’s golf team has earned a trip to the NCAA Regionals from May 6 to 8. The No. 15 Cyclones earned their spot after a record-setting regular season and a fourth place finish at the Big 12 Championships.

The players have to multitask preparing for the tournament and studying for finals in the coming weeks.

“For me personally, I’ve been preparing all semester, staying on top of course work … taking notes, studying for finals already — actually on our last trip,” said senior Victoria Stefansen. “It is a lot, and you kinda really got to schedule it out, but as a student athlete it’s something we deal with everyday.

“Regionals is just another tournament to get us to Nationals, so we’re preparing like we always do.”

Punpaka Phuntumabamrung has had to adjust to a new culture — coming from Bangkok, Thailand — while simultaneously impressing on the golf course and in the classroom.

“I really need a good preparation for both of them, school and golf,” Phuntumabamrung said. “For me, they are both very important; my golf game and my classes.”

“Coach [Christie Martens] has set practice from [2 p.m.] to [5 p.m.] every day until Regionals. So I try to just study as much as I can before that, and then also study after that, and I think I should be good in both.”

This is the second straight year advancing into the postseason for the Cyclones. Before last year, Iowa State was on a 14-year NCAA postseason drought. Unlike last year when the Cyclones had to bite their fingers until the last second to find out if they made it, this time around they have had the luxury of knowing for well ahead of time that they would advance.

“This year was very different from last year,” Stefansen said. “Last year we were right on the bubble. We didn’t know if we were gonna go or not. This year we’ve been ranked near the top for so long, we’ve known the whole time we were going to go.”

The Cyclones had the best regular season in school history, placing first or second in six of their 12 tournaments. They were disappointed in their fourth-place effort at the Big 12 Championships, especially since they entered as the No. 1 seed, but they are not letting anything get in their heads.

“We’ve come really far this season,” Stefansen said. “I think we wanted a little bit more last week [at the Big 12 Tournament], but it was a really tough field and a lot of teams played really good. For me, it’s been my best season here at Iowa State, I’m so proud of what we’ve done, but we’re not done yet.”

“I think both me and team are ready to go out in Regionals and earn a spot in Nationals and show everyone that we are as good as we’re supposed to be.”

Seventy-two teams are invited to compete in the NCAA Regional’s. There are three regions — West, Central, and East — with 24 teams in each; the Cyclones being in the West. The top eight teams from each region advance to nationals.

The West Regional’s will be played in Palo Alto, Calif., at the Stanford Golf Course. The first round tees off the morning of May 6, and the final 18 holes will be played May 8.