When you stage the inaugural Gifford Great 8 Collegiate
Match Play Championship at Brentwood Country Club in Los Angeles, well, there’s
a pretty good shot you’ll see the ancient cross-town rivals and two of the very
best teams in Division I women’s golf, UCLA and Southern California, square off
in the title match.
And it was close as you would expect it might be Tuesday with
the Bruins, No. 9 in the latest Golfstat rankings,
pulling out a 3-2 victory over No. 2 Southern Cal. All five matches went to the
18th hole and two of them ended in draws.
UCLA’s Clare Legaspi, a freshman from the Philippines,
trailed Southern Cal’s Robynn Ree, a sophomore from Redondo Beach, Calif.,
2-up, but rallied to get a half for what turned out to be the half-point that tipped
the match in the Bruins’ favor.
The NCAA Championship changed its format a couple of years
ago with the last eight survivors from stroke play advancing to match play to
determine the team champion. That brought about the creation of events like the
Gifford Great 8 to give the top teams a taste of match play to prepare them in
case they find themselves in just that situation at Rich Harvest Farms in Sugar
Grove, Ill. in May.
Lilia Vu, a sophomore from Fountain Valley, Calif. and
probably UCLA’s best player, pulled out a hard-fought 1-up decision over
Gabriella Then, a senior from Rancho Cucamonga, Calif. Erin Choi, a junior from
Torrance, Calif., grabbed another full point for the Bruins with a 1-up victory
over Muni He, a freshman from San Diego.
Tiffany Chan, a senior from Hong Kong, got a full point for
the Trojans when she edged Mariel Galdiano, a freshman from Pearl City, Hawaii,
1-up.
UCLA’s Bethany Wu, a sophomore from Diamond Beach, Calif.,
pulled out a half-point as she battled Victoria Morgan, a redshirt junior from
Pasadena, Calif., to a draw.
Galdiano, the qualifying medalist in the U.S. Women’s
Amateur at Rolling Green Golf Club last summer, and Wu were teammates on the
United States team that fell to a strong Great Britain & Ireland side in
the Curtis Cup Match last year in Ireland, as pressure-packed a match-play
situation as an amateur golfer can face.
Vu, though, was the leading lady for the Bruins in the
Gifford Great 8.
She dusted No. 36 Colorado’s Kirsty Hodgkins, a freshman
from Australia, 7 and 6, in the Bruins’ 3-2 victory over their Pac-12 rival in
a Monday afternoon match. Galdiano added a 4 and 3 win over Robyn Choi, also a
freshman from Australia, and Erin Choi and Wu gained a half-point each with
draws to send UCLA to the final.
In Monday morning’s opening round, Vu cruised to a 6 and 4
win over No. 40 Oregon’s Amy Matsuoka, a freshman from Newport Beach, Calif.,
to spark the Bruins in a 4-1 win over another Pac-12 rival. Legaspi, Wu and
Galdiano added victories for UCLA.
Southern Cal reached the final with a 3.5-1.5 win over No.
23 Purdue in the semifinals. The Trojans got wins from He, Chan and Ree and a
half-point for Then’s draw with Purdue’s Covadonga SanJuan, a sophomore from
Spain. Reigning Big Ten champion August Kim got a full point for the
Boilermakers.
Southern Cal opened up with a 3-2 win over No. 69 Oregon
State on the strength of wins by He, Chan and Ree.
The opening round also featured a showdown between two of
the Big Ten’s strongest teams, Purdue and No. 26 Ohio State, the reigning
conference co-champion. The Boilermakers advanced to the semifinals with a
3.5-1.5 victory over the Buckeyes with three of the matches halved.
Kim claimed a 2-up win over Katja Pogacor, a senior from
Slovenia, and Micaela Farah, a freshman from Peru, gave the Boilermakers
another full point with a 2 and 1 win over Niki Schroeder, a sophomore from
Avon Lake, Ohio. Purdue’s Marta Martin, a junior from Spain, earned a
half-point by battling Jessica Porvasnik, a senior from Hinckley, Ohio who
reached the round of 16 at Rolling Green last summer, to a draw. SanJuan and Linn
Andersson, a junior from Sweden, also halved their matches.
Colorado earned its ticket to the semifinals with a bit of
an upset -- if there is such a thing when you’re talking about match play –
when the Buffaloes upended No. 8 Georgia 3-2. Colorado got wins from Robyn
Choi, Esther Lee, a senior from Los Alamitos, Calif., and Brittany Fan, a
junior from Pearl City, Hawaii in knocking off the Bulldogs.
In addition to the title match, Tuesday featured some
tightly contested consolation finals.
Colorado, getting wins from Hodgkins, Lee and Gillian Vance,
a sophomore from Lakewood, Colo., took third place with a 3-2 win over Purdue.
For the Boilermakers, Kim capped a perfect 3-0 run in the Gifford Great 8,
improving her collegiate match-play record to 8-2-1, with a win. Martin also
won her match for the Boilers.
Ohio State and Georgia reached the fifth-place match with
consolation-round wins over Oregon St. (3-2) and Oregon (4-1), respectively.
The Buckeyes and the Bulldogs battled to a 2.5-2.5 deadlock
and were still tied via the first tiebreaker, which is matches won. Ohio State
was awarded fifth place because Porvasnik’s 3 and 2 win over Rinko Mitsunaga, a
sophomore from Roswell, Ga., was the first match won. Porvasnik had a win and
halved two matches and was named the Big Ten Golfer of the Week Wednesday for
her showing in the Gifford Great 8.
Pogacor pulled out a crucial half-point by battling Jillian
Hollis, a sophomore from Rocky River, Ohio, to a draw.
Georgia’s Bailey Tardy, a sophomore from Peachtree Corners,
Ga., completed a 3-0 week with a 1-up win over Jaclyn Lee, a sophomore from
Canada. Tardy is another member of the 2016 U.S. Curtis Cup team that was in
the Gifford Great 8 field.
The seventh-place match pitted in-state rivals Oregon State
and Oregon and they also battled to a 2.5-2.5 tie with the edge going to the
Beavers on the first tiebreaker, matches won.
Olivia Benzin, a sophomore from Tacoma, Wash., and Nichole
Schroeder, a freshman from Rocklin, Calif., each posted 3 and 2 wins that
helped give Oregon State its 6-5 edge in holes won. The Beavers also got a
half-point from Elyse Smidinger, a senior from Crofton, Md.
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