Postseason Becoming the Expectation
Apr 30, 2026 | Women's Golf, Sports Extra
By: D. Scott Fritchen
Three years ago, people told Stew Burke that "it couldn't be done" at Kansas State and that it was "a hard job." Last year, K-State authored one of the biggest comeback stories in Division I women's golf when the Wildcats advanced to their first-ever National Championship. This year? Nobody really gave K-State a chance, saying the Wildcats, who lost so much star power, were too young to compete.
On Wednesday afternoon, standing in front of a projection TV at Colbert Hills Golf Course, and with the youngest team in his career — a squad with one senior, two juniors, two sophomores and three freshmen — sitting across a long table watching on, Burke and the Wildcats learned they were back in the 2026 NCAA Regionals, thus silencing the preseason skeptics.
"You know, it's the K-State way, right?" Burke said. "People write us off. I'm pretty proud of our girls."
K-State is the seventh seed in the 54-hole Louisville Regional, which will be played May 11-13 at the University of Louisville Golf Club in Simpsonville, Kentucky. The field includes No. 1 Arkansas, No. 2 Auburn, No. 3 Iowa State (Big 12 Champion), No. 4 Mississippi, No. 5 Houston, No. 6 Virginia Tech, No. 8 Indiana, No. 9 College of Charleston (CAA Champion), No. 10 Xavier (Big East Champion), No. 11 Western Kentucky (Conference USA Champion) and No. 12 Murray State (Missouri Valley Champion).
The 72-team field for the 2026 NCAA Division I women's golf regionals features six regionals that field 12 teams and six individuals. Among those teams are 29 conference champions and 43 at-large programs.
The top five teams and low individual not on an advancing team at each site move on to the NCAA Championship in Carlsbad, California, on May 22-27.
"Regionals is not going to be my last tournament," said Noa van Beek, the lone senior on the K-State team. "We're going to make it to nationals. That's the main goal. It's not going to be my last tournament. I told the team, so they know. We need to just keep going. We're not done at all."
Burke applauded van Beek's determination.
"That's what you want," he said. "There are things you can and can't instill into players and determination is one thing we've got. We've got it in a boat load, in abundance. All these players have been written off. We're pretty excited to give it one more try at this."
This is the second time in K-State history that it has earned back-to-back berths in the regionals and the first since advancing every year from 2001 through 2004.
K-State, ranked No. 40 in the latest National Collegiate Golf Rankings, holds a 289.50 team scoring average this season to rank second in program history, just behind the 288.13 mark last year's squad put together as it advanced to the NCAA Championship for the first time in history. K-State also has four two-three and seven top-five finishes this season to tie for fourth place in history in each category.
In addition, five of K-State's top-15 team rounds and four of its top-15 54-hole scores have come during the 2025-26 season.
Burke isn't satisfied.
"We've not played good all spring," he said. "Our finishes have been good, but we're nowhere close to peaking. This would be a good place to get close to that. Hopefully, in California we will peak."
Burke said that K-State didn't necessarily possess a true No. 1 leader during the season, rather the Wildcats routinely found success behind sophomores Kelsey Chen and Namami Nakashima along with van Beek, who enters the postseason ranked third all-time at K-State with a 74.08 career scoring average over 113 rounds.
Chen, a native of Dalian, China, has a team-leading 72.00 scoring average while Nakashima is right behind at 72.72, respectively. Chen, a transfer from Georgia Southern, has the third-lowest single-season average in K-State history, while Nakashima's mark ranks fourth. Chen also has finished in the top 10 in five of her 11 starts this season, including a tie for first place in the spring-opening Puerto Rico Classic.
"This year was really good," Chen said. "I'm really glad I met Stew. He definitely helped me to bring my game to another level. We're going to have better opportunities to do better. We'll keep working on that."
K-State finished its last four tournaments in third place, fourth place, sixth place and third place prior to an uncharacteristic showing with a 13th-place finish in the Big 12 Championships last week.
"We just took it more as a wake-up call that we have some work to do," van Beek said. "We're not getting comfortable at all. It's definitely a wake-up call getting back to hard work, but it doesn't take any confidence away. We're definitely played solid throughout the year. Nothing to be concerned about at all."
van Beek ranks third on the team with a 73.00 scoring average and second with a pair of top-five finishes, including a victory in the Westbrook Invitational in February. During that event, the native of Oene, Netherlands recorded a school-record 54-hole score of 14-under par 202, which included a score of 8-under par 64 in the first round to rank second in K-State history.
She now enters her second straight NCAA Regional and will tie for 10th place in K-State history in career tournaments played with 41 during the NCAA Louisville Regional.
"We definitely have a way-younger team than last year, but we're very strong for being such a young team, and we have a lot of potential," van Beek said. "We haven't played our best yet. We're definitely ready to do that at the right time."
Right now sounds perfect.
"There are expectations from last year," Burke said, "and we look forward to competing again."
Three years ago, people told Stew Burke that "it couldn't be done" at Kansas State and that it was "a hard job." Last year, K-State authored one of the biggest comeback stories in Division I women's golf when the Wildcats advanced to their first-ever National Championship. This year? Nobody really gave K-State a chance, saying the Wildcats, who lost so much star power, were too young to compete.
On Wednesday afternoon, standing in front of a projection TV at Colbert Hills Golf Course, and with the youngest team in his career — a squad with one senior, two juniors, two sophomores and three freshmen — sitting across a long table watching on, Burke and the Wildcats learned they were back in the 2026 NCAA Regionals, thus silencing the preseason skeptics.
"You know, it's the K-State way, right?" Burke said. "People write us off. I'm pretty proud of our girls."
K-State is the seventh seed in the 54-hole Louisville Regional, which will be played May 11-13 at the University of Louisville Golf Club in Simpsonville, Kentucky. The field includes No. 1 Arkansas, No. 2 Auburn, No. 3 Iowa State (Big 12 Champion), No. 4 Mississippi, No. 5 Houston, No. 6 Virginia Tech, No. 8 Indiana, No. 9 College of Charleston (CAA Champion), No. 10 Xavier (Big East Champion), No. 11 Western Kentucky (Conference USA Champion) and No. 12 Murray State (Missouri Valley Champion).
The 72-team field for the 2026 NCAA Division I women's golf regionals features six regionals that field 12 teams and six individuals. Among those teams are 29 conference champions and 43 at-large programs.
The top five teams and low individual not on an advancing team at each site move on to the NCAA Championship in Carlsbad, California, on May 22-27.
"Regionals is not going to be my last tournament," said Noa van Beek, the lone senior on the K-State team. "We're going to make it to nationals. That's the main goal. It's not going to be my last tournament. I told the team, so they know. We need to just keep going. We're not done at all."
Burke applauded van Beek's determination.
"That's what you want," he said. "There are things you can and can't instill into players and determination is one thing we've got. We've got it in a boat load, in abundance. All these players have been written off. We're pretty excited to give it one more try at this."
This is the second time in K-State history that it has earned back-to-back berths in the regionals and the first since advancing every year from 2001 through 2004.
K-State, ranked No. 40 in the latest National Collegiate Golf Rankings, holds a 289.50 team scoring average this season to rank second in program history, just behind the 288.13 mark last year's squad put together as it advanced to the NCAA Championship for the first time in history. K-State also has four two-three and seven top-five finishes this season to tie for fourth place in history in each category.
In addition, five of K-State's top-15 team rounds and four of its top-15 54-hole scores have come during the 2025-26 season.
Burke isn't satisfied.
"We've not played good all spring," he said. "Our finishes have been good, but we're nowhere close to peaking. This would be a good place to get close to that. Hopefully, in California we will peak."
Burke said that K-State didn't necessarily possess a true No. 1 leader during the season, rather the Wildcats routinely found success behind sophomores Kelsey Chen and Namami Nakashima along with van Beek, who enters the postseason ranked third all-time at K-State with a 74.08 career scoring average over 113 rounds.
Chen, a native of Dalian, China, has a team-leading 72.00 scoring average while Nakashima is right behind at 72.72, respectively. Chen, a transfer from Georgia Southern, has the third-lowest single-season average in K-State history, while Nakashima's mark ranks fourth. Chen also has finished in the top 10 in five of her 11 starts this season, including a tie for first place in the spring-opening Puerto Rico Classic.
"This year was really good," Chen said. "I'm really glad I met Stew. He definitely helped me to bring my game to another level. We're going to have better opportunities to do better. We'll keep working on that."
K-State finished its last four tournaments in third place, fourth place, sixth place and third place prior to an uncharacteristic showing with a 13th-place finish in the Big 12 Championships last week.
"We just took it more as a wake-up call that we have some work to do," van Beek said. "We're not getting comfortable at all. It's definitely a wake-up call getting back to hard work, but it doesn't take any confidence away. We're definitely played solid throughout the year. Nothing to be concerned about at all."
van Beek ranks third on the team with a 73.00 scoring average and second with a pair of top-five finishes, including a victory in the Westbrook Invitational in February. During that event, the native of Oene, Netherlands recorded a school-record 54-hole score of 14-under par 202, which included a score of 8-under par 64 in the first round to rank second in K-State history.
She now enters her second straight NCAA Regional and will tie for 10th place in K-State history in career tournaments played with 41 during the NCAA Louisville Regional.
"We definitely have a way-younger team than last year, but we're very strong for being such a young team, and we have a lot of potential," van Beek said. "We haven't played our best yet. We're definitely ready to do that at the right time."
Right now sounds perfect.
"There are expectations from last year," Burke said, "and we look forward to competing again."
Players Mentioned
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