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Wednesday, May 23, 2018

Alabama, Arizona will play for the championship in NCAA's Final Match


   It will be Alabama, No. 1 in the latest Golfstat rankings, and No. 9 Arizona that will square off in the Final Match with the NCAA championship on the line Wednesday at Karsten Creek Golf Club in Stillwater, Okla.
   The Crimson Tide, seeded second coming out of match-play qualifying, did what they were supposed to do on a long, long day of high-level, high-stress golf Tuesday, cruising to a pair of 4-1 victories over No. 16 Kent State, the seventh seed, in the quarterfinals, and then No. 6 Southern California, seeded third, in the semifinals.
   But give Alabama credit. Rankings and seeds are meaningless when you get to quarterfinal/semifinal day of match play in the NCAA Championship.
   No. 9 Arizona had to prevail in a playoff with Baylor Monday just to get into the match-play bracket as the eighth seed. The Wildcats then went out and stunned two of their very talented Pac-12 rivals, beating top-seeded UCLA, ranked third, 3-2, in the quarterfinals before an emphatic 4-1 victory over No. 5 Stanford, seeded fifth, in the semifinals.
   Following a similar path to the one its cross-state rival Arizona State took to an NCAA title a year ago, Arizona finished tied for third with Stanford in the Pac-12 Championship. The Wildcats finished fourth in the Tallahassee Regional, 22 shots behind Alabama.
   So the Crimson Tide should have no trouble knocking off Arizona for the title Wednesday, right?    No, I suspect a supremely talented Alabama team will show up prepared to grind. Arizona will certainly be ready to fight for the title. After wins over UCLA and Stanford, the Wildcats are on a serious roll.
   For the second straight year, the Pac-12 had three of the four semifinalists and for the second straight year, the team that made it to the final seemed to be the least likely of the three to do so.
   But Arizona was ranked ninth for a reason and the Wildcats put on an impressive display in taking out Stanford, which always seems to put itself in position to make a run for the national championship.
   The most impressive performances for the Wildcats came from Sandra Nordaas, a sophomore from Norway, who rolled to a 6 and 4 victory over Albane Valenzuela, a sophomore from Switzerland and the No. 4 player in the Women’s World Amateur Golf Ranking (WAGR), and Bianca Pangdanganan, a junior from the Philippines who was on her way to a victory over Andrea Lee, a sophomore from Hermosa Beach, Calif. and No. 5 in the Women’s WAGR, when Arizona clinched the victory.
   The Wildcats clinched it on a 3 and 2 victory by Haley Moore, a junior from Escondido, Calif., over Mika Liu, a freshman from Beverly Hills, Calif.
    Moore is one of the best players in college golf. This week Pangdanganan has been Arizona’s best player – she finished tied for second with Stanford’s Lee in the individual competition – but Arizona coach Laura Ianello knows she can send Moore out in any situation and have a chance, a really good chance.
   Arizona’s other point came from Gigi Stoll, a junior from Tigard, Ore. who rolled to a 5 and 3 win over Ziyi Wang, a sophomore from China.
   Moore and Stoll spent the week between the Pac-12 Championship and the Tallahassee Regional competing in the U.S. Women’s Amateur Four-Ball Championship at El Caballero Country Club in Tarzana, Calif., reaching the second round of match play. It’s starting to look like it was a great way to prepare for the pressure-cooker of two rounds of match play at the NCAA Championship.
   Stanford’s lone senior, Shannon Aubert, a native of France who lists Stuart, Fla. as her home town, was ahead of Arizona’s Yu-Sang Hou, a freshman from Taiwan, when Moore clinched the match.
   Alabama rode its Big Three – Lauren Stephenson, a junior from Lexington, S.C. and No. 6 in the Women’s WAGR, sophomore Kristen Gillman, a sophomore from Austin, Texas and No. 11 in the Women’s WAGR, and Cheyenne Knight, a junior from Aledo, Texas and No. 14 in the Women’s WAGR – into the Final Match.
   Not that Southern Cal and its fabulous four freshmen made it easy.
   Stephenson battled to a 2 and 1 decision over Jennifer Chang, a freshman from Cary, N.C. Gillman claimed a 3 and 1 victory over Amelia Garvey, a freshman from New Zealand. And Knight pulled out a 3 and 1 victory over Allisen Corpuz, a sophomore from Honolulu, Hawaii.
   Alabama’s senior leader, Lakareber Abe of Angleton, Texas, dropped a 1-up decision to Alyaa Abdulghany, a freshman from Newport Beach, Calif., and the Tide’s Angelica Moresco, a freshman from Italy, and Gabi Ruffels, a freshman from Australia, were all square when Alabama clinched the match.
   All Stoll did in the morning was knock off the top-ranked amateur player in the world, UCLA’s Lilia Vu, a junior from Fountain Valley, Calif., 2-up, a win that started the dominoes falling for the Wildcats. Moore got another point with a 3 and 1 victory over Clare Legaspi, a sophomore from the Philippines.
   And the clincher came when Pagdanganan edged Patty Tavatanakit, a freshman from Thailand and No. 8 in the Women’s WAGR, 1-up. Tavatanakit, probably at the head of a ridiculously talented freshman class in Division I this season, had a five-footer for birdie to extend the match, but powered it through the break.
   Alabama got things started when Stephenson claimed a 3 and 2 win over Kent State’s Pimnipa Panthong, a sophomore from Thailand and No. 12 in the Women’s WAGR. Gillman’s 2 and 1 victory over Michaela Finn, a junior from Sweden, clinched a spot in the semifinals for the Tide.
   Two of the more distinguished careers from the recent college golf scene came to an end in the morning quarterfinals.
   Leona Maguire, a senior from Ireland and No. 2 in the Women’s WAGR, got the lone point for Duke in a 3-1-1 loss to Southern Cal with a 1-up victory over Chang.
   The fact that Maguire’s four-year scoring average of 70.97 is the lowest in the history of Division I among players with more than 100 rounds allows you to argue that she is the greatest ever, the GOAT the label a younger generation just loves to throw around.
   She could easily have turned pro after her sophomore season two years ago, but she chose to stay. Her twin sister Lisa wrapped up her Duke career with a 4 and 2 loss to Abdulghany Tuesday. Lisa Maguire is not nearly as accomplished a golfer as Leona Maguire is, but the twins saw it through together to the end and I’m guessing that counted for something.
   It looked like Leona Maguire might remain an amateur long enough to tee it up for Great Britain & Ireland in the Curtis Cup one last time next month at Quaker Ridge Golf Club in Scarsdale, N.Y. when her name appeared on GB&I’s preliminary team.
   But her name was not on the final team, so it appears Leona Maguire will head for the Symetra Tour and LPGA Qualifying School, although I wouldn’t be shocked if she advanced through Symetra’s Volvik Race for the Card, despite giving the rest of the developmental tour a headstart of several months. Suffice it to say, you should be able to see her playing on TV some more by about this time next year, if not sooner.
   One of Northwestern’s points in a 3-2 loss to Stanford came from Hannah Kim, a senior from Chula Vista, Calif. She has been one of the top players in the Big Ten since she first teed it up as a freshman.
   Kim, Sarah Cho, a senior from San Diego, Stephanie Lau, a junior from Fullerton, Calif., and Janet Mao, a  junior from Johns Creek, Ga., have been rock solid in helping the Wildcats reach the Final Match a year ago at Rich Harvest Farms and earn their spot in match play this year at Karsten Creek.
   They send smart kids out into the world at Duke and Northwestern. They have already proven they are good at golf, but I’m guessing Leona Maguire and Hannah Kim will excel at whatever they do.





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