A couple of scholastic standouts of recent vintage, Lower
Merion’s Alessandra Liu and Pennsbury’s Jackie Rogowicz squared off for the
Pennsylvania Women’s Amateur championship Saturday at Saucon Valley Country
Club’s Grace Course.
Liu, coming off a senior season at William & Mary during
which she qualified as an individual for the NCAA Championship, captured the
state amateur crown with a hard-fought win on the 19th hole.
Liu and Rogowicz, a sophomore at Penn State, were coming off
last week’s U.S. Women’s Amateur at Rolling Green Golf Club. Both just missed
earning a berth in match play as Rogowicz, a two-time District One champion at
Pennsbury, lost in a playoff that included nine players for the last five
berths and Liu finished a shot out of that playoff.
Liu and Rogowicz both punched their tickets to Rolling Green
in a Women’s Amateur qualifier at Hawk Pointe Golf Club in Washington, N.J. At
the time, Liu indicated she was leaning toward trying to pursue a career in
professional golf.
Liu earned her spot in the final with a 1-up victory over
2014 Pennsylvania Women’s Amateur champion Isabella DiLisio, a sophomore at
Notre Dame, in Friday’s semifinals. DiLisio was the 2013 PIAA Class AAA
champion as a junior at Mount St. Joseph.
In her semifinal matchup, Rogowicz edged soon-to-be Penn
State teammate Madelein Herr, 1-up. Madelein Herr won the District One Class
AAA title as a senior at Council Rock North last fall.
Friday morning’s quarterfinals were all tight matches during
which two former champions were ousted.
Liu knocked off defending champion Katie Miller, a
three-time PIAA champion at Hempfield Area, 3 and 2. DiLisio claimed a 2-up
decision over Wake Forest junior Erica Herr, the older of the Herr sisters.
Erica Herr was a two-time PIAA champion at Council Rock North in 2011 and
2012. She was denied a third straight
state title on a dramatic eagle on the final hole by DiLisio.
Rogowicz defeated former Central Dauphin standout Allison
Cooper 3 and 1. And Madelein Herr advanced to the semifinals with a 2 and 1 win
over 2010 Pennsylvania Women’s Amateur champion Aurora Kan, who starred
scholastically at Chichester and collegiately at Purdue. Kan was also in the
field at Rolling Green and did earn a spot in match play, getting ousted in the
first round by South Carolina star Katelyn Dambaugh.
In the first flight final, Katrin Wolfe, a former Penn State
player from the Johnstown area, downed Peters Township senior Mia Kness, 4 and
3.
In Friday’s semifinals, Kness defeated Mia Barchetti, 3 and
2, while Wolfe claimed a 4 and 3 decision over Amy Kennedy. Wolfe had reached
the semifinals with a 5 and 4 victory over Stani Schiavone, a former Bangor
standout who was voted the winner of the Kim Moore Spirit Award by the Women’s
Golf Coaches Association as a senior at Mississippi in 2015.
Maddie Sager, runnerup in the PIAA Class AAA Tournament as a
senior at Owen J. Roberts last fall, won the second flight with a narrow 1-up
win over former Manheim Central standout Haley Goodling.
Sager advanced to the final with a win by default over
Kimberly Snyder in the semifinals. Goodling rolled to a 7 and 5 victory over
Danielle Proctor in her semifinal match. In a quarterfinal match, Snyder edged
Chichester senior Caprian Kan, 1-up.
In the always competitive senior division, Beth Ward, a
reinstated amateur who was an assistant pro at Lebanon Country Club, captured
the title with a 3 and 2 victory over Sunnybrook Golf Club’s Lisa McGill.
It was no easy road to the final for Ward as she pulled out
a 2 and 1 win over three-time senior champion Noreen Mohler in the semifinals
and earned a 3 and 2 decision over Kerry Rutan in the quarterfinals. Mohler had
survived her own tough test in the quarterfinals, beating Merion Golf Club’s
Liz Haines, the 2004 U.S. Senior Amateur runnerup, 1-up.
In the senior division first-flight final, Norma Efremenko
defeated Ruth Averbeck, 3 and 2, and in the senior second-flight final, Joanne
Van Saun edged Dawn Kendall, 1-up.
No comments:
Post a Comment