For the fifth year in a row, Stanford will enter match play in the NCAA Championship as the top seed.
The Cardinal, the No. 1 team in the Scoreboard, powered by clippd, rankings throughout the wraparound 2024-2025 season, are well aware that the battle to successfully defend their national championship has just begun.
Stanford closed 72 holes of qualifying for match play at the Omni La Costa Resort & Spa’s North Course Monday with a solid 4-under-par 284 that gave them a 21-shot victory over the same Oregon team the Cardinal defeated in last spring’s NCAA Championship’s Final Match.
After starting slowly, Stanford surged in the middle two rounds, carding a 10-under 278 over the 6,330-yard, par-72 North Course layout in Saturday’s second round and an NCAA Championship record 18-under 270 in Sunday’s third round.
Nursing their big lead during Monday’s final round, the Cardinal finished with a 27-under 1,125 total that was also a record for stroke play in the NCAA Championship.
Big Ten champion Oregon, No. 4 in the Scoreboard rankings, matched Stanford’s final round of 4-under 284 to claim runnerup honors with a 6-under 1,146 total.
A year ago, Stanford and Oregon were members of a Pac-12 Conference that was in its final days. The Cardinal joined the Atlantic Coast Conference while Oregon and Southern California, No. 9 in the Scoreboard rankings, became members of the Big Ten’s new West Wing.
Those three teams, semifinalists a year ago, comprised three of the top five finishers after 72 holes of stroke play came to an end.
Which brings us to the most exciting day in women’s amateur golf each year: Quarterfinal/semifinal day in the NCAA Championship.
Stanford drew ACC rival Virginia, No. 11 in the Scoreboard rankings, as the Cavaliers survived a four-way tussle for eighth place and the final spot in the match-play bracket.
About the only thing Stanford did not win in this memorable season was the ACC Championship. The Cardinal got a valuable lesson in the vagaries of match play when they fell to Wake Forest in the semifinals in the ACC Championship last month at Sedgefield Country Club in Greensboro, N.C.
Oregon’s quarterfinal opponent Tuesday morning will be Texas, No. 6 in the Scoreboard rankings, as the Longhorns, which left the Big 12 behind for the Southeastern Conference this season, quietly went about their business to finish in seventh place in stroke play with an 8-over 1,120 total that left them comfortably ahead of the battle being waged for the final spot in the match-play bracket.
Another interesting quarterfinal matchup will pit perennial Big Ten power Northwestern, No. 11 in the Scoreboard rankings, against the SEC’s Arkansas, No. 2 in the Scoreboard rankings.
Northwestern had been Stanford’s closest pursuer through the middle rounds. The Wildcats closed with a 10-over 298 to finish eight shots behind their new Big Ten rival Oregon in third place with a 2-over 1,154 total.
Arkansas, behind NCAA individual champion Maria Jose Marin, a sophomore from Colombia and No. 10 in the Women’s World Amateur Golf Ranking (WAGR), closed with a 3-over 291 to finish in sixth place with a 6-over 1,158 total.
Jose Marin was the star of the show in The Golf Channel’s broadcast Monday, and deservedly so, as the final spots in the match-play bracket were filled and the individual championship played out.
The North Course at La Costa seems to fit Jose Marin’s eye. She finished in a tie for fourth place in the individual competition a year ago and she was just rock solid down the stretch Monday in posting a 3-under 69 that gave her a 12-under 276 total and a two-shot victory over Florida State’s Mirabel Ting, a junior from Malaysia and No. 2 in the Women’s WAGR.
Jose Marin became the third Razorback to capture the NCAA individual crown, joining Stacy Lewis, a two-time major champion and one of the most respective voices in women’s golf who claimed the title in 2007, and 2019 champion Maria Fassi. That’s the kind of list you want to be on.
Jose Marin reached the semifinals of last summer’s U.S. Women’s Amateur Championship at Southern Hills Country Club in Tulsa, Okla., so she is well acquainted with the unique pressure that match play presents.
The last quarterfinal Tuesday morning will pair Ting and ACC champion Florida State, No. 4 in the Scoreboard rankings, against Southern California.
Florida State matched par for the second day in a row with a 288 to finish a shot behind Northwestern in the team standings in fourth place with a 3-over 1,155 total.
Ting kept the pressure on Jose Marin in the battle for the individual championship all day, closing with a solid 4-under 68 to earn runnerup honors with a 10-under 278 total.
With Ting and Lottie Woad, a junior from England and the No. 1 player in the Women’s WAGR, in the lineup, the Seminoles always projected as a tough out in match play in the NCAA Championship if they could get there. They’re there.
Southern California always seems to end up in the match-play bracket in the NCAA Championship.
A year ago, the Trojans lost to eventual champion Stanford in the semifinals. Two years ago at Grayhawk Golf Club in Scottsdale, Ariz., Southern Cal stunned a Rose Zhang-led Stanford team in the semifinals before falling to Wake Forest in the Final Match.
It will be a long and frustrating offseason for the three teams that just missed making the match-play bracket.
Virginia closed with a 3-over 291 to finish with a 15-over 1,167 total that gave them that coveted eight spot.
Arizona State, a Big 12 representative and No. 6 in the Scoreboard rankings, finished a shot behind the Cavaliers in ninth place with a 16-over 1,168 total after recording a final round of 5-over 293.
SEC champion South Carolina, No. 3 in the Scoreboard rankings, and its SEC rival, LSU, No. 12 in the Scoreboard rankings, were another shot behind Arizona State in a tie for 10th place.
South Carolina never seemed to find its footing at La Costa, the Gamecocks closing with a 9-over 279 for a 17-over 1,169 total. LSU closed with a 1-over 289 to join South Carolina at 17-over.
You make the final eight and get to play a match in the NCAA Championship, you had a great season. Virginia knows what it is up against in taking on Stanford.
The Cardinal accounted for the next two spots in the individual standings behind Ting with Kelly Xu, a junior from Claremont, Calif. and, at No. 29, the lowest-ranked player in the Stanford lineup in the Women’s WAGR, finishing in third place and Paula Martin Sampedro, a sophomore from Spain and No. 13 in the Women’s WAGR, taking fourth.
Xu was in with a chance to catch Marin all day, finally settling for a final round of 1-under 71 that left her a shot behind Ting in third place with an 8-under 280 total.
Like Jose Marin, Martin Sampedro finds the North Course to her liking. She finished in third place in the individual chase a year ago and closed with a 1-over 73 Monday to finish a shot behind her teammate Xu in fourth place this time around with a 7-under 281 total.
Megha Ganne, a veteran junior from Holmdel, N.J. and No. 11 in the Women’s WAGR, and one of Stanford’s two fabulous freshmen, Swede Meja Ortengren, No. 15 in the Women’s WAGR, gave the Cardinal four players in the top 10 as they finished in a tie for 10th place, each landing on 4-under 284.
Ganne, who has a ton of high-level match-play experience, closed with her best round of the tournament, a 3-under 69. Ortengren finished up with a solid 1-under 71.
The other Stanford freshman, Spaniard Andrea Revuelta, No. 4 in the Women’s WAGR, was arguably the hottest player in college golf coming into the NCAA Championship as she swept to individual titles in the ACC Championship at Sedgefield and in the Norman Regional at the Jimmie Austin OU Golf Club.
Revuelta closed with a 2-over 74 to finish among the group tied for 24th place with a 2-over 290 total.
Let the matches begin.
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