WG: Buoyed By Hole-in-One, Bears Move Up to Fifth

Tuesday, May 12

Waco, Texas

Baylor

NCAA Regional

WG: Buoyed By Hole-in-One, Bears Move Up to Fifth

5/12/2026 8:17:00 PM | Women's Golf

Li’s first ace, Boczar’s 2-under 68 help BU climb leaderboard at Waco Regional

NCAA WACO REGIONAL DAY 2 RESULTS

WACO, Texas – Starting the day just hoping to hang in there and creep up the leaderboard, the Baylor women did just that, shooting 2-under 278 on Tuesday and moving up two spots to a tie for fifth after 36 holes at the NCAA Waco Regional at Ridgewood Country Club.

But it only took one swing for the Bears to leapfrog 17^th-ranked Tennessee, when junior transfer Yurang Li used a 54-degree wedge to shoot her first-career hole-in-one, acing the par-3, 114-yard 16^th hole en route to an even-par 70.

"After hitting it, I thought it was going to be good," Li said. "I didn't know if it was going to go in or not. But from my angle, it looked like it landed and took a bit of a hop right. I couldn't see if it went in or not, but our team manager, Kate, was the one who started celebrating. And I was like, 'Oh, it went in.'''

With Li missing a short par putt at 18, the Bears dropped into a tie for fifth with Tulsa at 6-over 566 going into Wednesday's third and final round. Shooting a sizzling 11-under 269, 21^st-ranked SMU took a commanding lead at 14-under 546, followed by fourth-ranked Texas A&M (6-under, 554), LSU (1-under, 559) and eighth-ranked Oregon (3-over 563).

"Obviously, the hole-in-one by Yurang, but I saw a lot of good grinding out here today," Baylor coach Jay Goble said. "It's not always going to be perfect. This is a hard course, and you're going to make bogeys. But I saw a lot of resilience and a lot of comebacks after a challenging shot or maybe not the way they wanted to play a hole. That's the sign of a good team is we don't give up. We're just out here hitting one shot a time . . . and fighting till the very end of the round."

After a rather quiet front nine, senior Bridget Boczar carded birdies on four of her last eight holes and led the Bears with a 2-under 68 that left her tied for 15^th and one shot ahead of Li at even-par 140. Charlotte Brook and Malena Castro took a little more circuitous route, with a combined seven birdies offset by five bogeys and a double-bogey, they had matching rounds of 70 and are 2- and 3-over, respectively, after 36 holes.

"I think we accomplished our goal today to hang around and stay in there and creep up the leaderboard a little bit," Goble said. "I think the most important thing is to still give yourself a chance to make it through. And we've done that. Even after not having our best game (Monday), we still left the door open for us to go out and play our games and have a great day tomorrow."

With only the top five teams advancing out of the 12-team tournament, Baylor and Tulsa are two shots up on Tennessee and just three behind Oregon for fourth.

SMU's Kirra St. Laurent shot 6-under 64 on Tuesday and is tied atop the individual standings with Texas A&M's Vanessa Borovilos and LSU's Francesa Fiorellini at 5-under 135. Louise Depadt of Tarleton State is in position to finish as the top individual off a non-advancing team after back-to-back rounds of 1-under 69.

Starting on the backside at No. 10, Baylor will be paired with Oregon and Tulsa for the final round with tee times starting at 8 a.m.

Live scoring is available at NCAA Waco Regional, with Babygrande providing live streaming.

For the latest news on the Baylor women's golf team, follow its official Facebook, X and Instagram accounts: @BaylorWGolf.

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