Oklahoma State, Ole Miss will play for national championshp after a day of drama at Grayhawk

   This is what Greg Robertson came home for.

   A very successful head coach at Kent State, Robertson returned to his alma mater at Oklahoma State to raise the level of the women’s program to that of the men in Stillwater, where winning a national championship is the goal at the start of every season.

   Robertson’s Cowgirls will play for a national championship Wednesday in the NCAA Championship’s Final Match at Grayhawk Golf Club’s Raptor Course in Scottsdale, Ariz. after claiming a 5-0 victory over Atlantic Coast Conference champion Duke, which had won the last NCAA Championship contested in 2019 at The Blessings Golf Club in Fayetteville, Ark., in the semifinals Tuesday afternoon.

   Earlier in the day, Oklahoma State, No. 7 in the latest Golfstat rankings, reached the semifinals by taking down another conference champion, Southeastern Conference winner Auburn in the quarterfinals with a 4-1 victory.

   Big 12 champion Oklahoma State will face another SEC entry in No. 5 Mississippi for the title after the Rebels edged Arizona, 3-2, in the other semifinal over the 6,323-yard, par-72 Raptor Course.

   While many college golf conferences kept their teams from competing in the fall portion of the wraparound 2020-2021 season due to coronavirus concerns, the Big 12 and the SEC teams played a limited schedule. Ole Miss, for instance, got a spot in the East Lake Cup at the end of the fall season that it normally would not have earned, but the Rebels made the most of the opportunity by capturing the title with a 3-2 victory over SEC rival South Carolina.

   It's hard not to notice that the last two teams standing at Grayhawk played some golf last fall while other programs were grounded. Whatever the reason, Oklahoma State and Ole Miss were the two best teams on the grounds at Grayhawk Tuesday.

   Ole Miss reached the semifinals with a dramatic 3-2 victory over No. 17 Texas, Oklahoma State’s Big 12 rival, in a match that wasn’t decided until Samilla Sonderby, a freshman from Denmark, had outlasted the Longhorns’ Ashley Park, a freshman from Irvine, Calf., on the 22^nd hole.

   At No. 2, Duke was the highest-ranked team left when the eight-team match-play bracket was established at the conclusion of 72 holes of stroke-play qualifying.

   Oklahoma State and Duke sent out their top guns in the first match of the semifinals and the Cowgirls immediately took control of the match as Maja Stark, a sophomore from Sweden and No. 7 in the Women’s World Amateur Golf Ranking (WAGR), cruised to a 4 and 3 victory over Gina Kim, a junior from Chapel Hill, N.C. and No. 40 in the Women’s WAGR.

   Isabella Fierro, Oklahoma State’s fiery sophomore from Mexico and No. 67 in the Women’s WAGR, got an early lead and claimed a 2 and 1 victory over Erica Shepherd, a sophomore from Greenwood, Ind. and No. 76 in the Women’s WAGR.

   Both Fierro and Shepherd are proven match-play competitors with Fierro claiming the title in the North & South Women’s Amateur Championship at the Pinehurst Resort in North Carolina in 2017 as a 16-year-old and Shepherd was also 16 when she captured the title that same summer in the U.S. Girls’ Junior Championship at Boone Valley Golf Club in Augusta, Mo.

   Duke freshman Phoebe Brinker, a Wilmington, Del. native and Archmere Academy product, was the victim on the clinching point as Oklahoma State’s Rina Tatematsu, a talented freshman herself from Thailand, claimed a 3 and 2 decision over Brinker.

   It was still a wonderful freshman campaign for Brinker, who had to wait until early in 2021 to get on the golf course for Duke. You can do a lot worse than end your freshman season with a loss in match play in the national semifinals.

   Oklahoma State’s Lianna Bailey, a freshman from England and No. 100 in the Women’s WAGR, was awarded a 1-up victory over Anne Chen, a freshman from Sugar Land, Texas. Rounding out the victory for the Cowgirls was Maddison Hinson-Tolchard, a freshman from Australia who earned a 1-up decision over Jaravee Boonchant, a senior from Thailand and No. 69 in the Women’s WAGR.

   Kim and Boonchant were in the starting lineup two years ago at The Blessings and survived the uncertainty of the pandemic to lead the Blue Devils to the semifinals in a short season.

   This is why Ole Miss’ Kennedy Swann of Austin, Texas and No. 83 in the Women’s WAGR, and Julia Johnson, of St. Gabriel, La. and No. 49 in the Women’s WAGR, came back for a fifth season. Offered that opportunity by the NCAA to make up for the spring of their senior seasons stolen by the pandemic, Swann and Johnson, feeling a sense of unfinished business, grabbed the opportunity.

   Johnson’s four-foot par putt closed out No. 22 Arizona’s Yu Chan Chung, a freshman from China and No. 66 in the Women’s WAGR, 2 and 1, and clinched the match for the Rebels. Swann had put the first point on the board for Ole Miss with a 3 and 2 victory over Vivian Hou, a sophomore from Taiwan.

   Swann and Johnson were on the Ole Miss team that celebrated the first SEC title in program history two springs ago. The Rebels were on their way to a strong postseason run a year ago, ranked 12^th when the pandemic shut down college golf. They got a bit of a wakeup call when cross-state rival Mississippi State knocked them off in the SEC’s match-play quarterfinals this spring.

   Ole Miss didn’t hit a shot in a Baton Rouge Regional cancelled by relentless rains. But the Rebels have been solid throughout in Scottsdale, finishing fourth in the qualifying for match play. And now they will play for a title.

   Ole Miss’ third point came from Andrea Lignell, a sophomore from Sweden, who delivered a 1-up  victory over Gile Bite Starkute, a sophomore from Lithuania and one of the heroes of the Wildcats’ stunning upset of top-seeded Stanford in Tuesday morning’s quarterfinals.

   Chiara Tamburlini, a sophomore from Switzerland, dropped a 2 and 1 decision to Therese Warner, a sophomore from Kennewick, Wash., and Arizona picked up another point when Yu-Sang Hou, a senior from Taiwan and No. 34 in the Women’s WAGR, defeated Sonderby, 2 and 1.

   Oklahoma State was nearly as impressive in Tuesday morning’s quarterfinal win over No. 15 Auburn as it was in the afternoon against Duke.

   Stark again got it started with a 2 and 1 victory over Kaleigh Telfer, a senior from South Africa and No. 50 in the Women’s WAGR. Fierro went 19 holes to defeat Megan Schofill, a sophomore from Monticello, Fla. and No. 46 in the Women’s WAGR.

   Bailey claimed a 3 and 2 decision over Anna Foster, a freshman from Ireland, and Tatematsu earned a 3 and 2 victory over Mychael O’Berry, a senior from Hoover, Ala. Auburn’s lone point came from its fifth-year player, Elena Hualde Zaniga of Spain as she pulled out a 2 and 1 win over Hinson-Tolchard.

   There was no shortage of drama in Mississippi’s victory over No. 17 Texas in rematch of the Rebels’ semifinal victory over the Longhorns in the East Lake Cup last fall.

   This one came down to extra holes in two matches and both went Ole Miss’ way. Lignell was up against one of the top players in Division 1 women’s golf in Texas’ Kaitlyn Papp, a senior home girl from Austin, Texas and No. 8 in the Women’s WAGR. Papp had birdie looks on the 20^th and 21^st holes, but couldn’t get them to fall and Lignell stuck her approach to 10 feet the 22^nd hole and converted the birdie try to stun Papp, the low amateur in December’s U.S. Women’s Open at Champions Golf Club in Houston.

   That left it up two freshmen and Sonderby, who was 2-down with four holes to play in regulation, dropped a three-footer for bogey on the 21^st hole to edge Park and send the Rebels to the semifinals.

   Ole Miss’ third point came courtesy of Swann, who rolled to a 4 and 3 victory over Sophie Guo, a sophomore from Orlando, Fla. and No. 68 in the Women’s WAGR.

   Ole Miss’ Johnson suffered a 2 and 1 setback at the hands of Sara Kouskova, a junior from the Czech Republic and No. 63 in the Women’s WAGR. Texas’ other point came from Agathe Laisne, a senior from France and No. 17 in the Women’s WAGR who claimed a 2 and 1 decision over Tamburlini.

   The biggest upset of the day came in the quarterfinals when Arizona stunned its Pac-12 rival Stanford, which had rolled to the top seed in 72 holes of match-play qualifying by 13 shots. But much like the 2018 semifinals at Karsten Creek Golf Club when the Wildcats beat Stanford on their way to the national championship, Arizona claimed a 3-2 victory over the No. 6 Cardinal.

   Arizona’s Hou sisters, Vivian, a sophomore, and Yu-Sang, a senior, each came up with a big point for  the Wildcats. Vivian Hou pulled out a 2 and 1 decision over Sadie Englmann, a freshman from Austin, Texas, and Yu-Sang Hou rolled to a 5 and 3 verdict over Aline Krauter, a junior from Germany and No. 47 in the Women’s WAGR.

   But it was Bite Starkute who delivered the dagger, a 30-foot birdie bomb on the 19^th hole to beat Angelina Ye, a sophomore from China and No. 22 in the Women’s WAGR. Ye had finished third in the individual standings in qualifying for match play.

   Brooke Seay, a sophomore from San Diego, got a point on the board for Stanford with her 4 and 3 victory over Yu Chun Chang, a junior from Taiwan and No. 61 in the Women’s WAGR.

   Stanford got its other point from newly-minted NCAA individual champion Rachel Heck, a freshman from Memphis, Tenn. and No. 6 in the Women’s WAGR. Heck completed a sweep of individual titles in the Pac-12 Championship, the NCAA Stanford Regional and the NCAA Championship with her victory Monday. Heck claimed a 3 and 2 decision over Warner.

   It was a young Stanford team, but it was still a little bit of a surprise considering how well the Cardinal had been playing. Help is on the way, though, as Rose Zhang, the No. 1 player in the Women’s WAGR and the reigning U.S. Women’s Amateur champion, is expected to join the Stanford program at the end of the summer.

   In one last quarterfinal, Duke advanced to the semifinals with a 3.5-1.5 victory over the third Pac-12 team among the final eight, No. 10 Arizona State.

   Kim again drew the Sun Devils’ most experienced player, two-time Great Britain & Ireland Curtis Cupper Olivia Mehaffey, a fifth-year player from Northern Ireland and No. 22 in the Women’s WAGR, and Kim pulled out a 2 and 1 decision.

   Duke’s two freshmen, Chen and Brinker, each earned a full point, Chen cruising to a 7 and 5 victory over Alessandra Fanali, a junior from Italy, and Brinker earning a 2 and 1 victory over Amanda Linner, a sophomore from Sweden.

   Duke’s Shepherd battled Arizona State’s top player, Linn Grant, a sophomore from Sweden and No. 2 in the Women’s WAGR, to a draw.

   Arizona State’s full point came from Ashley Menne, a freshman from Surprise, Ariz. who had finished fourth place in the individual standings in 72 holes of match-play qualifying., Menne claimed a 2 and 1 win over Duke’s Boonchant.

   It was a day that put on full display all that we missed when quarterfinal/semifinal day at the NCAA Championship never happened a year ago. For the ecstatic winners and the heartbroken losers, it was a tremendous day for women’s college golf, for women’s golf. Your talent, your passion, your grit and determination made it, as it always is, one of the most riveting days on the golf calendar.