Brianna Navarrosa, a junior from San Diego, has likely been playing golf against Rose Zhang, a sophomore from Irvine, Calif. and the No. 1 player in the Women’s World Amateur Golf Ranking (WAGR), since they were both junior golfers.
There is no shortage of talent coming out of Southern California these days. Zhang’s considerable accomplishments have rightly made her the face of women’s amateur golf the last couple of years. Monday, Zhang came on strong to become the first woman to win two NCAA individual crowns, going back-to-back in her first two seasons of college golf.
Tuesday on the Raptor Course at Grayhawk Golf Club in Scottsdale, Ariz. Navarrosa and Zhang found themselves in the anchor match of an NCAA semifinal between Navarrosa and Southern California and Zhang and Stanford. And Navarrosa wasn’t backing down one bit.
They have been tremendous rivals in the Pac-12 and on the national college scene in last six or seven years, the Trojans and the Cardinal.
Even this spring, Southern Cal had gotten the better of Stanford to capture the Pac-12 team crown at Papago Golf Course in Phoenix.
But you had to like Stanford’s chances if their showdown in the desert with Southern Cal came down to Zhang against Navarrosa.
But Navarrosa nervelessly pulled out a 2 and 1 victory over Zhang, holing a clutch birdie putt on the 16th hole, that went a long way toward sending the No. 9 Trojans, not the No. 1 Cardinal, to the NCAA Championship’s Final Match Wednesday against Atlantic Coast Conference power Wake Forest with 3-1 victory for Southern Cal.
In a stroke-play tournament, Zhang is very, very tough as she proved once again with her historic victory in the NCAA’s individual chase, as she proved earlier this spring by taking the Augusta National Women’s Amateur Championship. But the addition of match play to the NCAA Championship has added a layer of unpredictability to the proceedings.
Or as we golf fans like to say, hey, it’s match play. Anything can happen in match play.
And on quarterfinal/semifinal day Tuesday at the 6,368-yard, par-72 Raptor Course, anything happened all over the place all day.
Navarrosa was hardly the only hero for Southern Cal.
Cindy Kou, a sophomore from China, delivered a 2 and 1 victory over Stanford’s talented freshman, Megha Ganne of Holmdel, N.J. and No. 86 in the Women’s WAGR.
Christine Wang, a junior from Houston, claimed a 2 and 1 victory over Brooke Seay, a senior from San Diego and No. 57 in the Women’s WAGR. Seay was slow to recover from a concussion all spring, but was back in the lineup Tuesday.
Wang came off the bench in the afternoon, replacing Malia Nam, a fifth-year player from Kailua, Hawaii who suffered a 6 and 5 setback at the hands of South Carolina’s Mathilde Claisse, a senior from France and No. 83 in the Women’s WAGR. It was the only full point surrendered by the Trojans to No. 4 South Carolina, a powerful Southeastern Conference representative, in a 3-1 quarterfinal victory.
Kelly Xu, a freshman, put a full point on the board for Stanford with a 2 and 1 victory over Catherine Park, a freshman from Irvine, Calif. who had earned a share of second place behind Zhang in the individual chase that wrapped up Monday.
It was the second match win of the day for Xu, who had pulled out a 1-up decision over Pepperdine’s Lion Higo, a junior from Australia, in Stanford’s 3-1 victory over the 16-ranked West Coast Conference champion Waves in Tuesday morning’s quarterfinals.
Southern Cal’s Amari Avery, a sophomore from Riverside, Calif. and No. 12 in the Women’s WAGR, was 1-down to Stanford’s Sadie Englemann, a junior from Austin, Texas and No. 90 in the Women’s WAGR, through 17 holes when the Trojans secured the victory.
Navarrosa and Park had earned Southern Cal’s other two full points in its victory over South Carolina in the morning quarterfinals, Navarrosa earning a 2 and 1 decision over Louise Rydqvist, a sophomore from Sweden and No. 41 in the Women’s WAGR. and Park claiming a 3 and 2 verdict over Mia Sandtorv Lussand, a freshman from Norway.
Meanwhile, Wake Forest earned the other spot in Wednesday’s Final Match with a 3-0 victory over SEC champion Texas A&M.
Four years ago at The Blessings Golf Club in Fayetteville, Ark., the Demon Deacons’ Emilia Migliaccio, a sixth-year player from Cary, N.C. and No. 32 in the Women’s WAGR, played in the NCAA Championship’s Final Match, securing a full point for Wake Forest in a loss to ACC rival Duke.
It probably seems like two lifetimes ago for Migliaccio and her veteran Wake Forest teammates. There has been a global pandemic. Migliaccio has taken a different path from a woman whose plan was to pursue a career on the LPGA Tour to one who is remaining an amateur and pursuing a career in communications.
Migliaccio and Rachel Kuehn, a senior from Asheville, N.C. and No. 7 in the Women’s WAGR, have been teammates on two winning U.S. Curtis Cup teams. Their Wake Forest teammate Lauren Walsh, a senior from Ireland and No. 49 in the Women’s WAGR, has opposed them while playing for the Great Britain & Ireland side in both of those Curtis Cup editions.
Migliaccio will finish her college career back in the NCAA’s Final Match as she claimed a 2 and 1 victory over Texas A&M’s Zoe Slaughter, a junior from Houston, to deliver a key point for Wake Forest.
Kuehn earned another full point for the Demon Deacons with a 4 and 2 victory over Hailee Cooper, a senior from Montgomery, Texas.
Mimi Rhodes, a junior from England, has been an unsung hero for this Wake Forest team and she claimed her second match win of the day with a hard-fought 1-up victory over Blanca Fernandez Garcia-Poggio, a sophomore from Spain.
Rhodes had pulled out another 1-up victory over Alice Hodge, a junior from Larchmont, N.Y., in Wake Forest’s 3-1 victory over ACC rival and 10th-ranked Florida State in the quarterfinals earlier in the day.
Walsh had found herself in a battle with her GB&I Curtis Cup teammate Charlotte Heath, a junior from England and No. 18 in the Women’s WAGR, and the two were tied after 18 holes when Wake Forest clinched the match against the Seminoles.
Kuehn needed 20 holes to pull out a full point for Wake Forest against another GFB&I Curtis Cup player on the Florida State roster, Amelia Williamson, a senior from England and No. 73 in the Women’s WAGR.
Wake Forest’s other full point against Florida State came from Carolina Chacarra, a sophomore from Spain and No. 31 in the Women’s WAGR, as she claimed a 2 and 1 decision over Lottie Woad, a freshman from England and No. 26 in the Women’s WAGR.
Earlier Tuesday, Texas A&M had earned its spot in the semifinals with an emotional 3-1 victory over the Aggies’ ancient rival, No. 11 Texas out of the Big 12.
Slaughter had delivered a full point for Texas A&M with a 3 and 2 victory over Cindy Hsu, a freshman from Taiwan, Fernandez Garcia-Poggio claimed a 1-up decision over Angela Heo, a freshman from Murrieta, Calif., and Adela Cernousek, a sophomore from France pulled out a 1-up victory over Bohyun Park, a sophomore from Farmers Branch, Texas and No. 68 in the Women’s WAGR.
Texas A&M’s Cooper, a senior from Montgomery, Texas who had begun her college career at Texas, was leading Bentley Cotton, a junior from Austin, Texas, 1-up through 17 holes when the Aggies clinched the match.
Zhang had begun her day in typical Zhang fashion, rolling to a 6 and 5 victory over Pepperdine’s Reese Guzman, a senior from Kahului, Hawii.
By the end of the day, though, Zhang had fallen to Navarrosa and Stanford, so dominant throughout the wraparound 2022-2023 season, would end up one frustrating match win away from returning to the NCAA Championship’s Final Match.
It is what makes the NCAA Championship such fascinating theater, never more so than the oversized drama of quarterfinal/semifinal day.
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