You think Mother Nature was finished tormenting the 2017
NCAA Championship? Not a chance.
With two tense semifinals well under way, a thunderstorm hit
Rich Harvest Farms in Sugar Grove, Ill. Tuesday afternoon. The players were
able to return to the course, but
neither finalist is determined yet.
Stanford, No. 1 in the latest Golfstat rankings, is so close to a third straight trip to the
final match, the Cardinal can taste it. But it is not over yet.
Stanford has a 2-1 lead over Pac-12 rival Arizona State,
ranked seventh, and Albane Valenzuela, a freshman from Switzerland, is in the
fairway on the 18th hole of the 6,343-yard, par-72 Rich Harvest
Farms layout with a 1-up lead on the Sun Devils’ Monica Vaughn, a senior from
Reedsport, Ore. who claimed the individual title Monday.
The fifth match between Stanford’s Madie Chou, a freshman
from Santa Ana, Calif., and Arizona State’s Linnea Strom, a sophomore from
Sweden and the No. 11 player in the Women’s World Amateur Golf Ranking, is all
square through 16. Matches will continue to extra holes if necessary to
determine a winner.
This match had top 20 players in the Women’s World Amateur
Golf Ranking all over the place. The Valenzuela-Vaughn match pitted Nos. 3 and
15, respectively.
Arizona State’s Olivia Mehaffey, a freshman from Ireland who
is No. 9 in the WAGR, got a point for the Sun Devils with a hard-fought 2 and 1
victory over Andrea Lee, a freshman from Hermosa Beach, Calif. who is No. 8 in
the WAGR.
Stanford got two points from its two veterans of its runs to
the final match in 2015 and 2016, the first two years the NCAA incorporated
match play into the championship.
Casey Danielson, a senior from Osceola, Wis., claimed a 3
and 2 win over Sophia Zeeb, a junior from Germany, and Shannon Aubert, a junior
from Stuart, Fla., earned a 4 and 3 victory over Roberta Liti, a junior from
Italy.
It looks like it will be an all-Pac-12 final with No. 6
Southern California leading in four matches against No. 12 Northwestern in the
other semifinal. But this one is far from over.
Southern Cal’s Robynn Ree, a sophomore from Redondo Beach,
Calif., holds a 1-up lead over Hannah Kim, a junior from Chula Vista, Calif.,
through 14 holes, Muni He, a freshman from San Diego, has a 2-up lead on
Northwestern’s Kacie Komoto, a senior from Honolulu, Hawaii, through 13 holes,
Southern Cal’s Gabriella Then, a senior from Rancho Cucamonga, Calif., leads
Janet Mao, a sophomore from Johns Creek, Ga., 1-up through 12, and Tiffany
Chan, a senior from Hong Kong, leads Northwestern’s Stephanie Lau, a sophomore
from Fullerton, Calif., 1-up through 11.
Northwestern’s Sarah Cho, a junior from San Diego, leads
Victoria Morgan, a redshirt senior from Pasadena, Calif., 1-up through 15.
Despite the brutal conditions that have plagued the
tournament since Day 1’s rain and wind-chills in the high 30s, Southern
California completed the group of three Pac-12 teams out of the four
semifinalists with a hard-fought 3.5-1.5 victory over No. 25 Ohio State in the
last of the morning quarterfinal matches.
Ree pulled out a 1-up decision over the Buckeyes’ Rio
Watanabe, a redshirt junior from Japan, and Chan edged Katja Pogacar, a senior
from Slovenia, 1-up to account for two key points.
Ohio State’s Jaclyn Lee, a sophomore from Canada, battled Then
on even terms through 19 holes before the match was called when the Trojans won
their third point.
Southern Cal also got a full point from Morgan, who claimed
a 4 and 3 victory over Niki Schroeder, a sophomore from Avon Lake, Ohio.
Jessica Porvasnik, a senior from Hinckley, Ohio, capped her outstanding
career at Ohio State by earning a point with a 5 and 4 win over He.
On paper, it looked like the quarterfinal between Arizona State
and No. 3 Florida might be the most competitive, but the Sun Devils turned it
into a 5-0 rout as Mehaffey, Vaughn, Zeeb, Liti and Strom all won.
Stanford earned a 3-2 win over No. 17 Baylor behind wins
from Valenzuela, Lee and Danielson.
No. 14 Kent State put up a good fight before falling, 3-2,
to Northwestern, which had earned the top seed in match play through 54 holes
of stroke play. The winners for the Wildcats were Cho, Komoto and Kim.
The finalists will be determined early Wednesday morning and
a champion will be crowned later Wednesday, weather permitting of course.
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