I’m thinking Kennedy Swann and Julia Johnson were sure 2020 was going to be their year, the year that Mississippi finally got over the hump, made it to the NCAA Championship, maybe even contended for a national championship in their senior season.
And then suddenly, it was over. Some unseen virus had traveled halfway around the world and suddenly the rest of the 2019-2020 college season was cancelled. They were going to face a lifetime of what if …?
But then there was a second chance. The NCAA said you could have another season of eligibility for the one that had just been stolen away by the coronavirus pandemic. The response from Swann and Johnson was a simple “Heck, yeah.”
It was interesting to see how that dynamic worked in a lot of different ways this season. Some players took the fifth year at a different school. Some, like Swann, decided to stick around and start doing some work toward an MBA. Coaches love veteran players. The bring maturity and leadership. The younger kids nearly always look up to them.
The pandemic was still doing its worst as the 2020-’21 season began, but Ole Miss played a limited fall schedule. The Rebels were invited to play in the East Lake Cup. Normally the event is for the previous season’s NCAA Championship semifinalists.
Instead the top four teams in the rankings when the season ended in March were invited. With the Pac-12 and the Atlantic Coast Conference still not playing, the East Lake Cup went all the way to No. 12 and Ole Miss got the call and won the thing, beating Southeastern Conference rival South Carolina, 3-2, in the final on The Golf Channel.
Seven months later, with The Golf Channel cameras rolling again, Ole Miss was hoisting an NCAA Championship trophy after the fifth-year veterans Swann, of Austin, Texas and No. 83 in the Women’s World Amateur Golf Ranking (WAGR), and Johnson of St. Gabriel, La. and No. 49 in the Women’s WAGR, led the Rebels, No. 5 in the latest Golfstat rankings, to a 4-1 victory over Big 12 champion Oklahoma State in the NCAA Championship’s Final Match at Grayhawk Golf Club’s Raptor Course in Scottsdale, Ariz. Wednesday.
It was only the second time in Ole Miss history that the Rebels had even reached an NCAA final in any sport, the 1995 men’s tennis team settling for runnerup honors. Mississippi claims 1959, 1960 and 1962 national championships in football when one or the other wire services ranked the Rebels No. 1 after the bowls.
Not that it wasn’t a bumpy ride to the national championship for Ole Miss. The Rebels were stunned in the SEC’s match-play quarterfinals by cross-state rival Mississippi State. The Baton Rouge Regional was completely rained out and, as the second seed, Ole Miss advanced to the NCAA Championship without hitting a shot.
Head coach Kory Henkes had to be concerned whether not playing at all in Baton Rouge might dull the Rebels’ competitive edge.
But Mississippi never stopped competing in Scottsdale. The Rebels finished fourth in 72 holes of qualifying for match play. Two of their younger players, Andrea Lignell, a sophomore from Sweden, and Smilla Sonderby, a freshman from Denmark, battled into extra holes to pull out huge points in a 3-2 victory over a battle-tested Texas team in the quarterfinals.
Lignell again came up big in a 3-2 victory over Arizona in the semifinals with the veterans Swann and Johnson also earning points with match-play wins.
And then on the back nine of Wednesday’s Final Match, four of the Rebels were ahead. And then it was over and Ole Miss, no longer anybody’s weak sister, was the best women’s golf team in the land.
Chiara Tamburlini, a sophomore from Switzerland, put the first point on the board for the Rebels, cruising to a 6 and 5 victory over Lianna Bailey, a junior from England, over the 6,323-yard, par-72 Raptor Course layout.
Swann, playing in the lead match, stared down Maja Stark, a sophomore from Sweden and No. 7 in the Women’s WAGR, claiming a 2 and 1 decision. Stark had been playing really well the whole week at Grayhawk.
It was left to Lignell, who outlasted Texas’ Kaitlyn Papp, No. 8 in the Women’s WAGR, in 22 excruciating holes in Ole Miss’ dramatic quarterfinal victory, to close out the national championship for Rebels. Lignell rallied to knock off Isabella Fierro, a sophomore from Mexico and No. 67 in the Women’s WAGR, 2 and 1 for the third point.
Johnson put a bow on Ole Miss’ finest day with a 4 and 3 victory over Rina Tatematsu, the Cowgirls’ talented freshman from Thailand.
“I can’t even describe it,” Johnson told the Ole Miss website. “I don’t know. I mean, no one ever thought that we could do this. No one ever really believed in us and I knew. I just knew when I committed here that we could do this and I just believed in us from the start. It’s just really special. I’m just really thankful for this moment.”
Oklahoma State’s one point came from Maddison Hinson-Tolchard, a freshman from Australia who handed Sonderby a 4 and 3 setback. Sonderby, however, might have earned the biggest point of all for Ole Miss in her victory on the 21st hole against Texas freshman Ashley Park for the clincher in the quarterfinal win over the Longhorns.
Oklahoma State, No. 7 in the Golfstat rankings, established itself as a power in the Big 12, ending Texas’ three-year reign atop the league in Greg Robertson’s second year at the helm at his alma mater. The Cowgirls will be a force for years to come, but this day belonged to Ole Miss.
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