Clemson claims its first ACC crown with victory over Virginia in match-play final at Sedgefield

   Clemson could have been intimidated by the blue bloods it was facing in last week’s Atlantic Coast Conference Championship at Sedgefield Country Club in Greensboro, N.C.

   But the Tigers were ranked No. 24 by Golfstat heading into the ACC Championship and you don’t get that high a ranking by accident.

   Still, there was Duke, seven times an NCAA champion and there was Wake Forest, ranked No. 2 and the defending ACC champion and there was a really strong Virginia team, ranked 22^nd, and there was No. 11 Florida State, which has captured NCAA regional team titles in each of the last two springs.

   There were players in the top 100 in the Women’s World Amateur Golf Ranking (WAGR) and players with Curtis Cup experience all over the place.

   But Clemson’s players ignored all that stuff and just played golf. And when Isabella Rawl, a freshman from Lexington, S.C., finished off a tense 1-up victory Sunday over Virginia’s Megan Propeck, a sophomore from Leawood, Kan., it was Clemson celebrating the first ACC crown in program history with a 3.5-1.5 victory over the Cavaliers.

   Trust me, Wake Forest’s 3-2 loss to Virginia in the semifinals, which dropped three spots in the Golfstat rankings to No. 25 despite its run to the ACC title match, does not change the Demon Deacons’ goal of a deep run in the NCAA postseason.

   Virginia, too, is still planning to make a return trip to next month’s NCAA Championship at Grayhawk Golf Club in Scottsdale, Ariz. And the Dookies, who rose from No. 31 to No. 27 in the Golfstat rankings following the ACC Championship, have every intention of making sure last spring’s showing, when the Blue Devils failed to get out of the NCAA regionals, is not repeated.

   It’s why the big conferences added a layer of match play to their championships because if you can finish among the top eight in stroke play at Grayhawk, you are suddenly thrust into the pressure-packed, always unpredictable world of match play. It’s quite literally a whole new ballgame and the ACC’s top teams were reminded of that at Sedgefield.

   Virginia’s Amanda Sambach, a sophomore from Pinehurst, N.C. and No. 30 in the Women’s WAGR, capped off a huge week which saw her claim the ACC’s individual crown in record-breaking fashion with a 2 and 1 victory over Clemson’s Annabelle Pancake, a junior from Zionsville, Ind., that gave the Cavaliers what turned out to be their only full point of the title match.

   Virginia junior Jennifer Cleary, who starred scholastically at Tower Hill School in Wilmington, Del., got the half-point for the Cavaliers as she and Savannah Grewal, a senior from Canada, were tied through 15 holes when Clemson clinched its first ACC crown.

   But Clemson got full points from Melena Barrientos, a sophomore from Plano, Texas who claimed a 3 and 2 victory over Celeste Valinhos, a senior from Jacksonville, Fla., and Chloe Holder, a sophomore from Anderson, S.C., who completed a sweep of her two weekend matches with an impressive 4 and 3 win over Rebecca Skoler, a junior from Needham, Mass., to set the stage for Rawl’s clincher.

   A day earlier, Rawl and Holder came up with big match wins in the Tigers’ 3.5-1.5 semifinal victory over Duke as Rawl rolled to a 5 and 4 decision over Megan Furtney, a senior from St. Charles, Ill., and Holder defeated Erica Shepherd, a senior from Greenwood, Ind. and No. 89 in the Women’s WAGR, 3 and 2.

   Four springs ago, Furtney and Shepherd teamed up to take the title in the U.S. Women’s Amateur Four-Ball Championship at Timuquana Country Club in Jacksonville, Fla. a few months before they matriculated at Duke.

   But the big win for Clemson came from Pancake, who pulled out a 3 and 1 verdict over Duke junior Phoebe Brinker, the Archmere Academy product who is No. 50 in the Women’s WAGR.

   Brinker, who had won the ACC title a year earlier, was coming off a scintillating 8-under 64 over the 6,092-yard, par-72 Sedgefield layout in the final round of qualifying for match play as she finished two shots behind Sambach in second place in a spirited defense of her ACC individual crown.

   Virginia, meanwhile, claimed a hard-fought 3-2 victory over Wake Forest in the other semifinal, the Cavaliers pulling out three 1-up victories.

   Wake Forest has a veteran lineup with three players who have teed it up in the last two editions of the Curtis Cup Match.

   And the two veterans of the U.S. teams that won both of those matches, in 2021 at Conwy Golf Club in Caernarvonshire, Wales and last summer at Merion Golf Club’s historic East Course in the Ardmore section of Haverford Township in Delaware County, Emilia Migliaccio, a graduate student from Cary, N.C. and No. 31 in the Women’s WAGR, and Rachel Kuehn, a senior from Asheville, N.C. and No. 6 in the Women’s WAGR, accounted for the Demon Deacons’ two points.

   Migliaccio claimed a 3 and 2 victory over Cleary and Kuehn earned a 4 and 2 verdict over Valinho.

   But in the marquee match, probably of the whole weekend, Sambach, Virginia’s freshly minted ACC champion, edged Lauren Walsh, a senior from Ireland and No. 41 in the Women’s WAGR who represented Great Britain & Ireland at Conwy and at Merion, 1-up.

   Virginia’s Propeck pulled out an equally tense 1-up victory over Mimi Rhodes, a senior from England, and Skoler’s 1-up decision over Carolina Chacarra, a sophomore from Spain and No. 29 in the Women’s WAGR, capped a dramatic upset win for the Cavaliers.

   A year ago, Migliaccio was at Grayhawk in her role as an intern for The Golf Channel, interviewing the stars of Stanford’s run to an NCAA title. Back for a sixth year at Wake Forest and seriously considering life as a career amateur, Migliaccio would like nothing more than to cap her brilliant college career by leading the Demon Deacons to an NCAA title.

   Wake Forest has proven its ability to win a 54-hole stroke-play event, having captured team titles in five tournaments during the wraparound 2022-2023 season.

   With Kuehn, Walsh and Rhodes finishing inside the top seven at Sedgefield, the Demon Deacons claimed the top seed for match play in the ACC Championship by eight shots over their arch-rival Duke.

   After opening with a 3-under 285, Wake Forest erupted for a sizzling 12-under 276 in the second round of the April 13^th double round to take command of the team chase. The Demon Deacons then closed with a solid 4-under 284 for a 19-under 845 total.

   Duke put together back-to-back 5-under 283s in the first two rounds to stay within striking distance of Wake Forest before closing with a 1-under 287 to finish eight shots behind the Demon Deacons in second place with an 11-under 853 total.

   Clemson showed it was there to play as the Tigers finished four shots behind Duke in third place with a 7-under 857 total. After opening with a 3-under 285, Clemson added a 5-under 283 in the second round before finishing up with a 1-over 289.

   Virginia grabbed the fourth and final spot in the match-play semifinals as the Cavaliers finished eight shots behind Clemson with a 1-over 865 total. After matching par in the opening round with a 288, the Cavaliers posted a 1-under 287 in the second round before closing with a 2-over 290.

   It was a probably a little disappointing fifth-place finish for Florida State as the Seminoles ended up 13 shots behind Virginia with an 878 total that left them out of the match-play bracket. Florida State, however, has saved its best work for the NCAA regionals the last couple of seasons.

   Florida State registered back-to-back 5-over 293s in the first two rounds before finishing up with a 4-over 292.

   Kuehn led the way for Wake Forest in qualifying for match play as she finished four shots behind Duke’s Brinker in third place with an 8-under 208 total. Kuehn opened with a sparkling 6-under 66 and contributed a 2-under 70 to the Demon Deacons’ second-round surge before matching par in the final round with a 72.

   Walsh finished in a tie for fifth place with her GB&I Curtis Cup teammate Charlotte Heath, a junior at Florida State from England and No. 17 in the Women’s WAGR, as both landed on 5-under 211. After opening with a 1-over 73, Walsh posted a solid 4-under 68 in the second round before finishing up with a 2-under 70.

   Rhodes finished alone in seventh place, a shot behind Walsh and Heath with a 4-under 212 total. After opening with a 2-over 74, Rhodes was the low Demon Deacon in Wake Forest’s strong second round with a 5-under 67 before closing with a 1-under 71.

   Migliaccio matched par in the opening round with a 72 and struggled a little in the second round with a 4-over 76 that the Demon Deacons were able to throw out before closing with a solid 1-under 71 as she finished in the group tied for 15^th place with a 3-over 218 total.

   Rounding out the Wake Forest lineup was Chacarra, who gave the Demon Deacons a fifth finisher inside the top 20 as she finished among the group tied for 19^th place with an 8-over 220 total. Chacarra struggled a little in the opening round with a 4-over 76 before contributing a counting 1-under 71 in the second round and finishing up with a 1-over 73.

   Sambach was brilliant in qualifying for match play as her 14-under 202 total broke the ACC Championship record of 204 set in 200 4by Duke’s Brittany Lang, the 2016 U.S. Women’s Open champion at CordeValle.

   After opening with a 4-under 68, Sambach ripped off a 6-under 66 in the second round to take a two-shot lead over Wake Forest’s Kuehn into the final round. Sambach then sealed the deal with another solid 4-under 68 in the final round.

   Brinker opened defense of the individual title she won a year ago at the Reserve Golf Club at Pawleys Island in South Carolina with a 1-under 71 before adding a 3-under 69 in the second round.

   Then Brinker went off, lighting up the Sedgefield layout with eight birdies and an eagle in a brilliant final round of 8-under 64 that was a single-round record in the ACC Championship and left her two shots behind Sambach in second place with a 12-under 204 total.

   Clemson’s Pancake gave an indication of what was to come on the weekend as she finished a shot behind Wake Forest’s Kuehn in fourth place with a 7-under 209 total. Pancake posted back-to-back 2-under 70s in the first two rounds before closing with a 3-under 69.

   Florida State’s Heath sandwiched a 1-under 71 in the second round with a pair of 2-under 70s to join her GB&I Curtis Cup teammate Walsh in a tie for fifth place at 5-under 211.

   Virginia Tech’s Morgan Ketchum of Winston-Salem, N.C. capped an impressive freshman season as she finished a shot behind Wake Forest’s Rhodes in eighth place with a 3-under 213 total. After matching par with a 72 in the opening round, Ketchum carded a 2-under 70 before closing with a 71.

   Senior Caroline Wrigley, the PIAA Class AAA champion as a senior at North Allegheny in 2018, was a reserve for Notre Dame at Sedgefield and the Fighting Irish called on her for the final two rounds. Wrigley registered a 4-under 76 in the second round and a 78 in the final round.

   Notre Dame and North Carolina shared ninth place in the 12-team field, each landing on 30-over 894.