Miller, Stasi made some noise in Women's Mid-Amarteur at The Kahkwa Club

   The U.S. Mid-Amateur at Stonewall was not the only Mid-Amateur championship being staged in Pennsylvania this week.

   The Women’s Mid-Amateur was being held simultaneously at The Kahkwa Club, a Donald Ross design in Erie. With the two Mid-Ams going on at opposite ends of the state, it made for a total of four USGA championships in the Keystone State this year, joining the U.S. Open at Oakmont Country Club and the U.S. Women’s Amateur held last month at Rolling Green Golf Club.

   A couple of familiar names made strong runs to the quarterfinals at The Kahkwa Club.

   Katie Miller, the 2015 Pennsylvania Women’s Amateur champion from Jeannette, took eventual champion Julia Potter to 21 holes before falling. Meghan Stasi, the eight-time Philadelphia Women’s Amateur champion who calls Overland Park, Fla. home these days, fell, 1-up, to Patricia Schremmer of Honolulu, Hawaii.

   The 31-year-old Miller, a three-time PIAA champion at Hempfield in Greensburg who wen on to star at North Carolina, battled back from a 2-down deficit by winning the 15^th with a birdie and the 17^th with a par to force extra holes against Potter. Miller, who was reinstated as an amateur in 2013, finally bowed out when she made a double bogey on the third extra hole while Potter registered a par.

   The 38-year-old Stasi, a four-time U.S. Women’s Mid-Amateur champion, saw a 3-up lead against Schremmer disappear and needed a birdie at the 17^th to even the match and send it the 18^th hole. A birdie at the finishing hole enabled Schremmer to get past Stasi, the South Jersey native who enjoyed a homecoming last month when she qualified for the U.S. Women’s Amateur at Rolling Green.

   Miller had reached the quarterfinals with a 1-up win over Tiffany Maurycy of Denver, Colo. in the first round, a 1-up victory over Kristyl Sunderman of McDonough, Ga. in the second round and a 7 and 5 dismantling of Martha Leach of Hebron, Ky. in the round of 16.

   Stasi opened match play with a 6 and 5 decision over Carrie Chambers of Dallas, then cruised to a 7 and 5 victory over Carmen Titus of Kansas City in the second round.

   She reached the quarterfinals with a hard-fought 2-up win over Emilie Meason of Atlanta. Stasi grabbed a 1-up advantage with a birdie at the 15^th, needed birdie for a half at 16 and won the finishing hole with a birdie. 

   Lisa McGill of Philadelphia, who has been a good player in this area forever, qualified for match play, but was ousted by Katrin Wolfe of Johnstown, 5 and 3, in the opening round of match play. Wolfe, a former Penn State standout, pulled away by winning five straight holes, from the fifth to the ninth, to take control of the match.

   Wolfe fell to eventual runnerup, Shannon Johnson, 5 and 4, in the second round of match play.

   The 28-year-old Potter of Indianapolis and the 33-year-old Johnson of Newton, Mass. were co-medalists in qualifying, each carding 1-over 145 totals over the 6,125-yard, par-72 Kahkwa Course layout, and that form held all the way to the title match.

   Potter, a former Missouri standout who is the marketing director for the Indiana Golf Office, had a 4-up lead after six holes in the 18-hole final Thursday before Johnson ripped off wins at 12, 13, 14 and 15 to square the match.

   Potter, a left-hander, regained the advantage by winning the 16^th with a birdie and then got it up-and-down on the 17^th for par to seal her second U.S. Mid-Amateur crown with a 2 and 1 verdict. Johnson missed a chance to send the match to the 18^th hole when her three-foot putt for par at the 17^th would not drop.

   It was the third time in the last four years that Potter has reached the final of the U.S. Women’s Mid-Amateur.