Stanford, Oregon will meet for the title in NCAA Championship's Final Match at Grayhawk

    They were No. 1 and No. 2 when the NCAA Division I postseason began and they will play for the national championship in the NCAA’s Final Match Wednesday at Grayhawk Golf Club’s Raptor Course in Scottsdale, Ariz.

   So, just chalk, right? No. 1 Stanford and No. 2 Oregon were the two best teams and they just went out and beat everybody to get to the title match.

   But no, it’s never that easy, not even when the Cardinal and the Pac-12 champion Ducks really were the two best teams. Quarterfinal/semifinal day at the NCAA women’s championship is May Madness. There was so much talent playing their guts out on the Raptor Course Tuesday, it almost defies the imagination.

   Half of the Women’s World Amateur Golf Ranking’s top 10 players had a tee time at some time or another Tuesday. And they found their opponents duly unimpressed by their lofty ranking.

   Stanford’s Rose Zhang, a freshman from Irvine, Calif., has been at the top of the Women’s WAGR for going on two years now. She captured the NCAA individual crown by three shots when 72 holes of stroke play concluded Monday.

   Zhang ran into Georgia’s Candice Mahe, a freshman from France, in Stanford’s quarterfinal match Tuesday morning and Mahe, who finished in a tie for sixth place in the stroke-play portion of the tournament, handed Zhang a 1-up setback.

   The Cardinal quickly realized they had their hands full with the No. 27 Bulldogs out of the Southeastern Conference.

   They would survive with a 3-2 victory, largely because Rachel Heck, a sophomore from Memphis, Tenn. and No. 4 in the Women’s WAGR, was able to squeeze out a 2-up victory over Georgia’s Jenny Bae, a senior from Suwanee, Ga. and No. 74 in the Women’s WAGR.

   Heck was the NCAA individual champion a year ago at Grayhawk as a freshman and led Stanford to the top seed in the match-play bracket. Heck, Aline Krauter, a senior from Germany and No. 27 in the Women’s WAGR, and Brooke Seay, a junior from San Diego and No. 43 in the Women’s WAGR, were all in the lineup for the Cardinal’s quarterfinal loss to Pac-12 rival Arizona a year ago.

   They were Stanford’s winners in the quarterfinals Tuesday morning, Seay pulling out a 3 and 2 decision over Jo Hua Hung, a senior from Taiwan, and Krauter nailing down the clinching point with a hard-fought 2 and 1 victory over Loralie Cowart, a freshman from Carrollton, Ga.

   Zhang was more like herself in the afternoon as she cruised to a 5 and 4 victory over Auburn’s Mychael O’Berry, a fifth-year player from Hoover, Ala. who has been a real stalwart for the Tigers, another SEC power.

   It had been O’Berry who came up big in the morning, defeating No. 15 UCLA’s Caroline Canales, a freshman from Calabasas, Calif., 2 and 1, to send Auburn into the semifinals.

   And then it was Krauter and Seay who did the rest for Stanford in the afternoon. They’ve been in big match-play situations throughout their amateur careers. Krauter was the winner of The Women’s Amateur Championship in 2020 at West Lancashire and Seay regularly made deep runs in the U.S. Girls’ Junior Championship as a junior player.

   Last summer, both Krauter and Seay reached the round of 16 in the U.S. Women’s Amateur at Westchester Country Club in Rye, N.Y.

   In Tuesday’s match against Auburn, Krauter pulled out a 2 and 1 victory over Elina Sinz, a sophomore from Katy, Texas.

   Moments later Seay delivered the clinching point in Stanford’s 3-2 victory by edging South African Kaleigh Telfer, like O’Berry a fifth-year player for the Tigers, 1-up, after Seay had bombed a brilliant approach onto the green in two at the par-5 finishing hole.

   Oregon’s day, by comparison, was relatively stress-free.

   The Ducks were just too tough against the West Coast’s third strong entry in the quarterfinals, No. 5 San Jose State, as they rolled to a 4-1 victory.

   Hsin-Yu (Cynthia) Lu, a sophomore from Taiwan and No. 27 in the Women’s WAGR, clinched the victory for Oregon as the Pac-12’s individual champion claimed a 2 and 1 victory over the Spartans’ Louisa Carlbom, a sophomore from Sweden.

   Lu did the honors again in the afternoon with her 3 and 2 victory over Texas A&M’s Zoe Slaughter, a talented sophomore from Houston, sealing a 4-1 victory that sent Oregon to the NCAA Championship’s Final Match.

   Oregon also got a 2 and 1 victory by Ching-Tzu Chen, a junior from Taiwan, over Blanca Fernandez Garcia-Poggio, a junior from Spain, another 2 and 1 decision by Briana Chacon, a junior from Whittier, Calif. and No. 67 in the Women’s WAGR, over Hailee Cooper, a senior from Montgomery, Texas, and a 3 and 2 verdict by Tze-Han (Heather) Lin, a senior from Taiwan and No. 98 in the Women’s WAGR, over Jennie Park, a junior from Carrollton, Texas.

   Lin and Park both had top-5 finishes in stroke play, Lin ending up in fifth place and Park landing in a tie for third.

   Texas A&M, another SEC power, had reached the semifinals with a hard-fought 3-2 victory over No. 10 Florida State out of the Atlantic Coast Conference.

   The clinching point for the Aggies came from Adela Cernousek, a freshman from France who knocked off Beatrice Wallin, a senior from Sweden and No. 5 in the Women’s WAGR, on the 19^th hole.

   By the way, two Florida State players, Charlotte Heath, a sophomore from England and No. 58 in the Women’s WAGR who delivered a point for the Seminoles with a 2 and 1 victory over Park, and Amelia Williamson, a senior from England and No. 50 in the Women’s WAGR who dropped a 2-up decision to Slaughter, will be representing Great Britain & Ireland when the 42^nd Curtis Cup Match tees off in 16 days at Merion Golf Club’s historic East Course.

   Stanford’s Zhang and Heck will represent the United States at Merion in the Curtis Cup Match. First, however, they have a date in the desert with Oregon Wednesday as the Cardinal try to claim their first NCAA crown since 2015.