NICHOLASVILLE, Ky. – When play begins on Monday for the Florida State women’s golf team in the 2025 NCAA Lexington regional championship, Amy Bond and her Seminoles will do something they’ve never done before.

They’ll play as the No. 1 seed in a regional championship for the first time in school history.

The No. 2 ranked Seminoles begin play as the top seed in the 12-team regional with their sights set on finishing as one of the top five teams in order to advance to the NCAA Championship Finals (May 16-21, 2025) at the Omni La Costa Resort and Spa in Carlsbad, Cal. The top five finishing teams in each of the six NCAA regionals (May 5-7) will make up the 30 teams who will compete for the national championship.

Florida State, the 2025 ACC Champions, plan to be one of those five teams to advance to the championship finals.

“It’s going to take three days of really good golf to advance out of this regional,” said Seminole head coach Amy Bond, the 2025 ACC Coach of the Year. “The group of teams in the Lexington regional are all great teams who have played exceptional golf this year. We have to control what we can control, stay grounded, and play like we have since September. It’s the postseason; this is the time of the year we have prepared for.”

The Seminoles earned their way into the 2025 NCAA Championship as the automatic qualifier from the ACC as they won the conference championship for the first time in school history.

Florida State is ranked No. 2 nationally, earned a No. 1 ranking in an NCAA regional championship for the first time in school history, have won a national-best tying six team championships, earned a nation’s-leading seven top three team finishes, have lost to only eight teams in 11 events, totaled seven individual wins and 17 top three individual finishes, earned the top two ACC awards, and placed two members on the All-ACC team.

Bond, who has led her Florida State teams into 14 consecutive regional championships, is looking forward to starting play on Monday.

“I’m so proud of all of the girls and how they have played to get to this point in the season,” said Bond. “The fight they all showed in winning the ACC Championship was very positive. Each girl stepped up and did what they had to do to help us bring a trophy back to Tallahassee.”

Florida State will play with the same lineup that has helped it win both the Florida State Match Up and the ACC Championship – senior Kaylah Williams, junior All-Americans Lottie Woad and Mirabel Ting, and freshmen Sophia Fullbrook, Alexandra Gazzoli and Layla Pedrique.

Woad (2024) and Ting (2025) have won the last two ACC Golfer of the Year awards. Willliams has played in 29 career events – including a pair of regional championships, and both Fullbrook and Gazzoli have played much better than their freshman year class designation would suggest.

The regional format consists of three days and 54 holes of stroke play at the Keene Trace Golf Club.

Florida State (ACC champions) will be joined by No. 2 seeded Southern California, No. 3 TCU, No. 4 Vanderbilt, No. 5 Kansas State, No. 6 Georgia Southern, No. 7 Pepperdine, No. 8 Louisville, No. 9 Miami (Fla.), No. 10 Western Kentucky (Conference USA champions), No. 11 Morehead State (Ohio Valley Conference champions) and No. 12 Fairleigh Dickinson (Northeast Conference champions) in the NCAA Lexington regional championship.

The Seminoles are in the midst of an impressive eight-year regional run where they have finished no lower than fifth in a regional championship since 2016. Included in their run are two first place finishes, three second place finishes, one third place finish and two fifth place finishes.

Williams has played the last two regional championships for the Seminoles – a fifth place finish in Raleigh in 2023 and a fifth place finish in Las Vegas in 2024.

“We have all worked hard to put ourselves in this position,” said Williams. “Beginning with the successful week at the ACC Championships we have locked in on the aspects of our games that have allowed us to get to this point. We have to follow our game plans, stay in the moment, and play for each other.”

While Bond has led the Seminoles to recent regional success – including a regional championship at the University of Louisville Golf Course in 2021 — the last time the Seminoles played in the state of Kentucky – she certainly knows there is a lot of golf that will be played on Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday.

“This is the best time of the year,” said Bond. “The girls are done with classes and their exams are all completed. We are very happy for Kaylah to have graduated from Florida State University. All of their concentration can be on golf – and that’s what it going to take for us to play well and advance.”