CARLSBAD, CALIFORNIA – Top-seed Stanford and UCLA each scored a pair of match play victories on Tuesday to advance to the national championship match of the 2024 NCAA Division I Women’s Golf Championships that will be decided on Wednesday, May 22 at the North Course at the Omni La Costa Resort & Spa (6,330 yards/par 72).
Stanford will be looking for its third national title on Wednesday and second in three years, last winning in 2022. The Cardinal also won the team title in 2015. UCLA, which won NCAA team titles in 1991, 2004 and 2011, will be making its first-ever national championship match play final appearance. The match play portion was added to the NCAA Championships prior to the start of the 2015 season. The Bruins last reached the match play semifinals of the NCAA Championships in 2016.
The national semifinals featured four teams from the Pac-12 Conference, with Stanford advancing to the title match with a 3-1 national semifinal win over Southern California. Senior Sadie Englemann put up the first point with a 6&5 win over Southern California’s Cindy Kou. She was backed by wins from sophomores Megha Ganne over Brianna Navarrosa, 2&1, and Kelly Xu over Catherine Park, 3&2.
“We have had a great year, said Stanford Head Coach Anne Walker. “We have won five times. In a way we have been playing great all season, but you still have to come here and be ready to play. I think that is what is impressive that you are able to show up and compete at the right time and that is what they are doing. We were just focused on our game. I have so much respect for USC. They have had such a great year and it’s been pretty obvious that similar to our team one through five they have a lot of depth as a strength. We were going out there knowing it would be close.”
🏆 Texas A&M's Adela Cernousek wins 2024 DI women's golf individual title
UCLA defeated Oregon 3-1 in its semifinal match. Junior Caroline Canales defeated Karen Tsuru of Oregon, 7&5. Sophomore Meghan Royal, a native of Carlsbad, scored a 4&3 win over Oregon’s Ching-Tzu Chen. Junior Natalie Vo closed out the win with a 2&1 victory over Minori Nagano. Oregon got on the board when Kiara Romero scored a 4&3 win over Zoe Campos.
“It’s kind of unbelievable in your first year to make it this far,” said Alicia Um Holmes, UCLA’s first-year head coach. “It’s been a great ride with this team. When we started out this year we had no expectations. We said let’s play and see how we do and that has kind of been our mentality our whole time here as well. We aren’t really focused on winning so much as playing. Let’s just play. Let’s go have fun. Let’s stick to our game and see if we can win our matches.”
“Honestly it was really exciting,” said Vo of her clinching point. “It was really rewarding. Taking deep breaths I feel like that grounded me. I feel like there was a lot of adrenaline at the end and those deep breaths really helped me stay in the moment and I tried to keep it one shot at a time. We have been working all season for this. We are just going to go out and have fun and try to win.”
Stanford improved to 13-6 all-time in match play with the two wins on Tuesday.
“It’s insane,” said Englemann, who was part of Stanford’s 2023 national championship team. “This is my fourth year as a senior and my biggest goal all year is to make it to the finals and being able to do that is surreal. We have been in this position before and we lost in this match last year so being able to get it done this afternoon is a great feeling. This team has so much resilience and patience, it’s unreal. I think that no matter what we were going to fight until the end and that is exactly what they did.”
All four Pac-12 Conference teams prevailed in the morning quarterfinal matches. No. 1 seed Stanford earned a 3-0 win over No. 8 seed Auburn as the Cardinal received victories from Englemann (19 holes), Rachel Heck (4&3), and Xu (4&2). No. 4 seed Southern California posted a 3-1 win over No. 5 seed Clemson as Amari Avery (6&5), Bailey Shoemaker (3&2), and Navarrosa (7&5) posted the wins for the Trojans. No. 6 seed UCLA posted a 3-0 win over No. 3 seed Texas A&M. The Bruins received victories from Royal (1-up), Canales (2&1), and Vo (3&2). No. 7 seed Oregon, behind victories from Ching-Tzu Chen (1-up), Minori Nagano (7&6), and Romero (1-up), defeated No. 2 seed LSU, 3-2.
The national championship match of the 2024 championship will take place on Wednesday, May 22 at 2:15 p.m. PST at La Costa and will be broadcast live on Golf Channel and Peacock from 3 to 7 p.m. PST.
Schedule, how to watch the NCAA DI women's golf championship
Quarterfinal and semifinal match play results | Tuesday, May 21
Quarterfinals
#1 Stanford def. #8 Auburn, 3-0
Sadie Englemann (Stanford) def. Anna Davis (Auburn), 19 holes
Rachel Heck (Stanford) def. Anna Foster (Auburn), 4&3
Kelly Xu (Stanford) def. Katie Cranston (Auburn), 4&2
Megha Ganne (Stanford) vs. Casey Weidenfeld (Auburn), Unfinished
Paula Martin Sampedro (Stanford) vs. Megan Schofill (Auburn), Unfinished
#7 Oregon def. #2 LSU, 3-2
Ching-Tzu Chen (Oregon) def. Carla Tejedo Mulet (LSU), 1 Up
Minori Nagano (Oregon) def. Taylor Riley (LSU), 7&6
Latanna Stone (LSU) def. Ting-Hsuan Huang (Oregon), 3&2
Ingrid Lindblad (LSU) def. Karen Tsuru (Oregon), 4&3
Kiara Romero (Oregon) def. Aine Donegan (LSU), 1 Up
#6 UCLA def. #3 Texas A&M, 3-0
Meghan Royal (UCLA) def. Blanca Fernandez Garcia-Poggio (A&M), 1 Up
Caroline Canales (UCLA) def. Cayetana Fernandez Garcia-Poggio (A&M), 2&1
Natalie Vo (UCLA) def. Zoe Slaughter (A&M), 3&2
Adela Cernousek (A&M) vs. Kate Villegas (UCLA), Unfinished
Jennie Park (A&M) vs. Zoe Campos (UCLA), Unfinished
#4 Southern California def. #5 Clemson, 3-1
Catherine Park (Southern California) vs. Melena Barrientos (Clemson), Unfinished
Amari Avery (Southern California) def. Chloe Holder (Clemson), 6&5
Bailey Shoemaker (Southern California) def. Isabella Rawl (Clemson), 3&2
Brianna Navarrosa (Southern California) def. Sydney Roberts (Clemson), 7&5
Annabelle Pancake (Clemson) def. Cindy Kou (Southern California), 4&3
Semifinals
#6 UCLA def. #7 Oregon, 3-1
Caroline Canales (UCLA) def. Karen Tsuru (Oregon), 7&5
Meghan Royal (UCLA) def. Ching-Tzu Chen (Oregon), 4&3
Natalie Vo (UCLA) def. Minori Nagano (Oregon), 2&1
Kate Villegas (UCLA) vs. Ting-Hsuan Huang (Oregon), Unfinished
Kiara Romero (Oregon) def. Zoe Campos (UCLA), 4&3
#1 Stanford def. #4 Southern California, 3-1
Amari Avery (USC) def. Rachel Heck (Stanford), 2&1
Sadie Englemann (Stanford) def. Cindy Kou (USC), 6&5
Paula Martin Sampedro (Stanford) vs. Bailey Shoemaker (USC), Unfinished
Megha Ganne (Stanford) def. Brianna Navarrosa (USC), 2&1
Kelly Xu (Stanford) def. Catherine Park (USC), 3&2
National Championship Match
Wednesday, May 22 – 2:15 p.m. PST
No. 1 Stanford vs. No. 6 UCLA
Paula Martin Sampedro (Stanford) vs. Caroline Canales (UCLA), 2:15 p.m.
Kelly Xu (Stanford) vs. Meghan Royal (UCLA), 2:25 p.m.
Megha Ganne (Stanford) vs. Natalie Vu (UCLA), 2:35 p.m.
Sadie Englemann (Stanford) vs. Zoe Campos (UCLA), 2:45 p.m.
Rachel Heck (Stanford) vs. Katie Villegas (UCLA), 2:55 p.m.
GOLF Channel – 3 to 7 p.m. PST
