May 21, 2024 • by Dan Davies
On a day of contrasting emotions, the qualifiers for the match play stages at the 2024 NCAA DI Women's Championship were decided. Tears were shed by those that fell short.
Stanford will go into the knockout stages of the tournament as the top seed and will play Auburn in the quarter-finals. LSU will play Oregon, Texas A&M will face UCLA and USC will play Clemson.
Texas A&M’s Adela Cernousek (pictured below) claimed the NCAA DI Individual Championship, her maiden college win, adding a level par 72 to three consecutive rounds of 68. She won by three shots from Florida State’s Lottie Woad, who closed with a best of the day 69.
The three teams out last jockeyed for the right to be top seeds. Overnight leaders Texas A&M came back to the pack with a 15-over-par total of 298 to finish the stroke play tournament at +5. When Cayetana Fernandez Garcia-Poggio double-bogeyed the 18th their hopes of being first seeds evaporated.
It boiled down to Stanford and LSU. Garrett Runion's team stormed up the leaderboard, led by Ireland’s Aine Donegan, who finished 5 under for a T4 in the individual tournament. Both teams ended on +2 but Stanford’s combined dropped scores were five better than LSU’s, making them top seeds.
As crowds on the hill behind 18 acclaimed Cernousek, it was at the other end of the course that drama of a more stressful variety played out.
The battle for the eighth and final spot in the match play boiled down to three teams, all finishing their rounds on the 9th hole. Defending champions Wake Forest came storming back with a team total of two over, the second lowest score of the day.
Playing in her final event as a student athlete, Mimi Rhodes, who finished T10 in the individual tournament, made a brave up and down from the back of the 9th green to keep the Deacs’ hopes alive and.
Auburn and Oregon and Arkansas were playing together but when the Razorbacks went a combined four over par for the last two holes, their chance had gone.
Katie Cranston’s 15-foot par putt drew cheers from the Auburn supporters around the 9th green, and their place was secured in style around 20 minutes later when Anna Davis played a beautiful shot into a few feet and calmly rolled the ball in for birdie.
Ting-Hsuan Huang all but secured Oregon’s place when she got up and down from a difficult lie behind the 9th green for par. Kiara Romero then wrapped things up with a safe par.
“This golf course can get your heart and mind thumping,” said Melissa Luellen, Auburn Head Coach. “It can jump up and bite you at any time.” Auburn’s six players made only one birdie between them on their first nine, but their counting players made five coming home to get the job done.
Tuesday is when the real business begins.
T1. Stanford +2
T1. LSU +2
3. Texas A&M +5
4. Southern California +13
5. Clemson +18
T6. UCLA +19
T6. Oregon +19
8. Auburn +20
(The following teams did not qualify)
9. Wake Forest +22
10. Arkansas +25
T11. Texas +30
T11. Florida State +30
T11. Northwestern +30
14. Duke +32
15. Mississippi State +34
LSU v Oregon
Texas A&M v UCLA
Stanford v Auburn
USC v Clemson