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NCAA Women's Golf Championships: 4 Pac-12 teams advance to match play

May 21, 2018
StanfordPhoto.com / UCLA Athletics / Arizona Athletics / Paul Goldberg

Four Pac-12 teams have advanced to the match-play quarterfinals of the 2018 NCAA Women's Golf Championships at Karsten Creek Golf Club in Stillwater, Oklahoma — Arizona edged out Baylor in a playoff for the eighth and final spot, while UCLA, USC and Stanford all secured top-five seeds. Washington has been eliminated.

Top-seeded UCLA will play eighth-seeded Arizona (5:50 a.m. PT, starting on the first hole), No. 3 USC will play No. 6 Duke (5 a.m. PT, 10th hole) and No. 5 Stanford will square off against No. 4 Northwestern in the match-play quarterfinals (5:50 a.m. PT, 10th hole).

The quarterfinals and semifinals of match play will happen Tuesday, with the match-play finals set for Wednesday to determine this year's NCAA champion.

UCLA

UCLA made up eight strokes on Alabama to finish tied atop the team leaderboard at Karsten Creek after four rounds of stroke play, registering a 3-over 291 to get to 9-over for the championship alongside the Crimson Tide. The Bruins will take the No. 1 seed into match play as a result of winning the tiebreaker over Alabama (the Bruins had a better fifth-player score today than the Tide did). The Bruins are starting to make something of a habit out of this:

Mariel Galdiano and Lilia Vu each finished in the top 10 on the player leaderboard in a tie for seventh at 1-under, with Galdiano shooting 71 (1-under) on Monday and Vu shooting even par for her final round of stroke play. Patty Tavatanakit also secured a top-20 finish by getting into the clubhouse at 3-over for stroke play, despite going bogey, par, triple boge, -bogey on holes 12-15 (she finished her round with an eagle on Monday).

USC

USC was the only team under par on Monday, shooting 5-under as a squad in its final round of stroke play to finish in third and nab the No. 3 seed for the match-play quarterfinals. Like Stanford, USC has now advanced to the match-play portion of the NCAA Championships every year since the format was introduced in 2015.

Helping the Trojans to their lowest stroke-play round of the championship was Jennifer Chang, who shot 4-under to nab a top-15 finish at 1-over for her 72 holes, biridieing 12, 14 and 15 on the back nine to finish on a strong note. Gabriela Ruffels and Alyaa Abdulghany both shot 1-under to provide the Trojans with three under-par rounds.

Stanford

The Cardinal is on to match play as the No. 5 seed after a 2-over Monday put it at 28 over for the week, five shots clear of the tie for eighth between Baylor and Arizona. Stanford has now made it to match play all four years the format has existed at the NCAA Championships.

Andrea Lee was the major headliner for the Cardinal, firing the lowest round of the day and tied for the lowest round of the championship with a 7-under 65 to soar the Stanford sophomore all the way up to a tie for second and just two strokes shy of individual medalist Jennifer Kupcho of Wake Forest. Lee started out on fire, registering birdies on four of her first five holes en route to a bogey-free round. Shannon Aubert also had an under-par round on Monday, shooting 71 to finish stroke play at 8-over.

Arizona

It took two shotgun-playoff holes, but Arizona squeaked past Baylor to nab the eighth and final spot in the match-play quarterfinals, despite shooting the worst team round of the day by six strokes. The Wildcats got birdies from Bianca Pagdanganan and Yu-Sang Hou on their second playoff holes to edge out Baylor and advance to Tuesday (like the rest of the stroke-play format, the four best scores counted towards the team score for the playoff holes). This is the second time in four years that Arizona has advanced to the match-play quarterfinals.

It also took 18th-hole heroics from Pagdanganan to get Arizona into a playoff with Baylor in the first place, as Pagdanganan, who finished in a tie for second on the player leaderboard at 6-under, EAGLED her final hole to get Arizona to 17-over for the day and 33-over after 72 holes. The Wildcats then put up four pars to Baylor's four pars on the first playoff holes, with players from each side playing on 10, 11, 12, 13 and 18, before birdies from Pagdanganan and Hou launched Arizona into a quarterfinal date with UCLA. Pagdanganan was the only Wildcat close to par on Monday, shooting 72 to keep the Wildcats' season alive.

Washington

The Dawgs made up a little ground from Sunday but not enough to crack the top eight, shooting a 2-over 290 to get to 40-over through 72 holes. Entering Monday in 14th place, the Dawgs hopped up into a tie for 12th with Texas and Florida State.

Sarah Rhee was a major reason why the Dawgs had their lowest round of the championship by nine strokes, as the Husky junior shot a 3-under 69 to finish her four rounds at 7-over. Rino Sasaki shot even par to remain at 9-over for the championship, providing the Huskies with their second round of par or lower for the day and third of the week.

Colorado

Colorado's Robyn Choi finished stroke play on a solid note, carding an even-par 72 to finish her 72-hole stint at 4-over, good for a tie for 21st.