CARLSBAD, Calif. — Megha Ganne gained her final three holes and top-seeded Stanford held on to beat Southern California on Tuesday, advancing to the title match towards UCLA in an all-Pac-12 closing for the NCAA girls’s golf championship.
UCLA acquired massive performances from Carolina Canales, Meghan Royal and Natalie Vo, who every gained matches within the quarterfinals and semifinals on a protracted, powerful day at La Costa.
Stanford can be going for its second NCAA title within the final three years, and the third time for the reason that NCAA switched to match play for the staff title in 2015.
Sadie Englemann wanted 19 holes to beat former Augusta Nationwide Girls’s Newbie champion Anna Davis because the Cardinal beat Auburn within the quarterfinals Tuesday morning. She then constructed a 5-up lead on the flip for a 7-and-5 win over Cindy Kou within the semifinals as Stanford atoned for shedding to USC within the semifinals final 12 months.
Englemann ended the match with a 35-foot putt that she stated summed up her day.
“Every thing fell my manner,” she stated. “I made a whole lot of birdies, which is sweet to see. And I gained a little bit of confidence this morning, beating probably the greatest gamers within the nation.”
But it surely was tight for the Cardinal the remainder of the way in which. Amari Avery held off Stanford’s Rachel Heck in 17 holes, and the ultimate three matches may have gone both manner.
Stanford coach Anne Walker seen her staff lacking putts early “and I used to be curious if that was going to linger. And it did not.”
“You do not win a championship with out enjoying nice golf for 3 days,” she stated.
Ganne was 1 all the way down to Brianna Navarrosa when she birdied the fifteenth, gained the par-3 sixteenth with a par and closed out her 2-and-1 victory with a birdie on the seventeenth. Kelly Xu of Stanford was 1 up when Catherine Park bogeyed the fifteenth and left a bunker shot within the sand to bogey the sixteenth. Xu made a 10-foot par putt on the sixteenth to shut her out.
UCLA has three NCAA titles in girls’s golf, all in medal play and the final one in 2011. The Bruins knocked off Texas A&M within the quarterfinals, after which rapidly constructed a 3-0 lead towards Oregon.
Canales was the lead match and gained the primary 4 holes towards Karen Tsuru of Oregon, needing solely 13 holes to win the match. Proper behind was Royal, who by no means trailed towards Ching-Tzu Chen and closed her out with a 40-foot birdie putt.
Vo constructed a 3-up lead on the flip towards Minori Nagano and gained, 2 and 1. That despatched the Bruins, who defeated Texas A&M within the quarterfinals, into the championship match Wednesday.
