2024 NCAA Women’s Golf Quarterfinals Recap
When the 8 final teams stepped onto the 1st and 10th tees this morning, it was anyone’s game. The top four teams would move onto the semifinals this afternoon, making for a long day of golf and adrenaline.
For the first time in NCAA match play history – both among women’s and men’s – the four teams advancing are all part of the Pac-12 Conference. All west coast schools, three of them are located in California. Did they have a home advantage despite everyone playing on a newly renovated course for the first time together? Time will tell over these three years.
Match 1: LSU (2) vs. Oregon (7)
In the first match of the morning off Hole #1, Oregon defeated LSU on the 18th hole of the last match. Chen and Nagano of Oregon defeated Mulet and Riley of LSU, respectively. Stone and Lindblad of LSU defeated Huang and Tsuru of Oregon, respectively.
Ingrid Lindblad, a graduate student at LSU, completed her five-year individual career on a high, sinking a long birdie putt on the 15th hole to win her match and winning the ANNIKA Award. Annika Sorenstam flew into Carlsbad, Calif., to present the ANNIKA Award this week, which goes to the best collegiate female golfer (similar to the Haskins Award for men in college).
Oregon’s Kiara Romero and LSU’s Aine Donegan battled it out for 18 holes. Donegan birdied Hole 17 to push the match to the last hole, but a pulled approach shot left her a long putt. Romero hit her approach to about 6 feet, and while she missed the birdie putt, she had two strokes to win, so Donegan conceded the match.
Oregon advanced to the semifinals and would play against UCLA in the afternoon. Oregon was the runner-up to Stanford in 2022 and hopes to find themselves in contention again. Coach Derek Radley is hopeful this year will be the program’s first NCAA Championship title.
Match 2: Texas A&M (3) vs. UCLA (6)
The second match off Hole #1 was quickly determined by the first three groups. UCLA’s Royal, Canales and Vo won their matches against the Fernandez Garcia-Poggio sisters and Slaugther, respectively, causing two matches left unfinished.
After leading the event as a team and having Adela Cernousek win the individual title yesterday, it was a surprise to see them miss putts and end their run on this low. However, UCLA’s team has been slowly gaining steam over the week and pulled off some clutch shots to advance to the semifinals.
UCLA will be competing against Oregon this afternoon.
Match 3: Stanford (1) vs. Auburn (8)
Last off the golf course, Stanford had a decisive victory over Auburn. While the first match between Stanford’s Engelmann and Auburn’s Davis went 19 holes, Engelmann won the first playoff hole on par 3 Hole #16.
Her teammates Heck and Xu also defeated Auburn’s Foster and Cranston, respectively, leaving the remaining two matches unfinished. Auburn had fought hard to move up the leaderboard to qualify for match play, and it was difficult to compete against Stanford’s steady momentum day over day.
Stanford will be competing against USC in the semifinals this afternoon for the second year in a row. Last year, Southern California won – will Stanford’s momentum continue?
Match 4: Southern California (4) vs. Clemson (5)
While Clemson’s Annabelle Pancake, who placed 7th individually this week, won her match, USC’s Avery, Shoemaker and Navarossa won theirs, leaving the first match between USC’s Park and Clemson’s Barrientos unfinished.
Clemson took the lead in Day 1 of the NCAA Championship, so it was difficult to see them slowly move down the leaderboard each day. Southern California’s golf coach, Justin Silverstein, said that the team has had an irregularly inconsistent season but that they were peaking at the right time.
Time will tell if Southern California will be able to defeat Stanford again this afternoon.
2024 NCAA Women’s Golf Semifinals Recap
Our final two teams have been named – Stanford (1) vs. UCLA (6). Let’s see how we got there.
Match 1: UCLA (6) vs. Oregon (7)
Match 2: Stanford (1) vs. Southern California (6)
Stanford got their sweet revenge today, taking out USC, who had taken them out of the running for a title last year. Though the pairings were a bit tighter, the match had a similar story to UCLA and Oregon’s.
Stanford’s Sadie Englemann won 6&5 against Cindy Kou while USC’s Amari Avery was able to win her match against Rachel Heck. Megha Ganne and Kelly Xu from Stanford defeated Brianna Navarrosa and Catherine Park, respectively. Stanford’s star player this week, Paula Martin Sampedro – who placed 3rd individually, tied with Bailey Shoemaker of USC through 17 holes when the match was called.
Check out your favorite players’ tee times for tomorrow (starting at 2:15pm PDT) and follow along on Instagram (@fairwaytogreen).
