Miller advances, Roland comes up short in first round of U.S. Women's Mid-Amateur

   Reigning Pennsylvania Women’s Amateur champion Katie Miller of Jeannette cruised to a victory in the opening round of match play in the U.S. Women’s Mid-Amateur Championship Monday at Champions Golf Club’s Cypress Creek Course in Houston.

   The 32-year-old Miller, a three-time PIAA champion at Hempfield Area and an all-Atlantic Coast Conference player at North Carolina, was one of the three co-medalists in qualifying for match play with rounds of 69 and 73 for a 2-under-par 142 total over the 6,022-yard, par-72 Cypress Creek Course.

   Miller opened match play with a 4 and 3 victory over Liliana Ruiz-Munoz of Colombia. Ruiz-Munoz was the last survivor of an 8-for-5 playoff for the final five spots in the match-play bracket Monday morning. Ruiz-Munoz finished at 16-over 160 to earn her spot in the playoff.

   Miller got the jump on Ruiz-Munoz by winning four straight holes early in the match. After halving the first hole with pars, Miller won the second hole with a birdie, the third hole with a bogey and the fourth and fifth holes with pars to grab a 4-up lead.

   Miller advances to a second-round matchup with Mallory Hetzel of Virginia Beach, Va., who ousted Corey Weworski of Carlsbad, Calif., 2 and 1, in another opening-round match.

   One of the other survivors of that 8-for-5 playoff was Overbrook Golf Club’s Alyssa Roland, the medalist in the Golf Association of Philadelphia-administered U.S. Women’s Mid-Amateur qualifier at Concord Country Club.

   The 28-year-old Roland, who lives and works in New York City, drew one of the other three qualifying co-medalists, Marissa Mar of San Francisco, a former Stanford standout. Roland, the 2010 Ivy League champion at Yale, bowed out, 2 and 1, but staged quite a rally after getting 5-down after nine holes.

   Mar built her 5-up advantage by taking the first hole with a birdie, winning the fourth, fifth and seventh holes with pars and the ninth with a birdie.

   Roland won the 12^th and 14^th holes with birdies and drew within 2-down by winning the 14^th hole with a par. But Mar got halves on the next three holes – the pair halved the 15^th and 17^th holes with bogeys – to hold on.

   Meghan Stasi, a four-time U.S. Women’s Mid-Am champion from Fort Lauderdale, Fla., advanced with a 2 and 1 victory over Kathy Glennon of St. Albans, Mo. That sets up a second-round match between Stasi and Tara Joy-Connelly, teammates on Florida’s entry that finished third in the USGA Women’s State Team Championship at The Club at Las Campanas’ Sunrise Course in Santa Fe, N.M. earlier this fall.

   Joy-Connelly of North Palm Beach, Fla. reached the second round with a 2-up win over Linda Pearson of Glendale, Calif.

   Stasi, a South Jersey native, is an eight-time winner of the Women’s Golf Association of Philadelphia Match Play Championship, seven of them under her maiden name of Meghan Bolger.

   The third qualifying co-medalist along with Miller and Mar, Lauren Greenlief, the 2015 U.S. Women’s Mid-Amateur champion from Ashburn, Va., cruised to a 5 and 4 victory over Deborah Munoz of Boca Raton, Fla. in another opening-round match.

   Greenlief, a former collegiate standout at Virginia, will face Truc (Kelly) Ly of Vietnam in the second round. Ly edged Julie Sweeney of Greensboro, N.C., 1-up, in her opening-round match.

   Miller and Greenlief will team up in the U.S. Women’s Amateur Four-Ball Championship next spring at El Caballero Country Club in Tarzana, Calif.

   Winners of Tuesday morning’s second-round matches will turn right around and play the round of 16 Tuesday afternoon. By the time the sun sets on Champions Golf Club Tuesday night, only eight quarterfinalists will remain.