May 21, 2024 • by Dan Davies
Read on to follow how the semi-final match-ups unfolded on a sun-kissed North Course at Omni La Costa Resort & Spa.
Canales got off to a perfect start, birdieing the first three holes to go three up. A par on 4 extended her lead and when Tsuru bogeyed the 9th, the Bruin junior had a five hole advantage. A par on the tricky, par-3 12th put Canales at dormie and she then closed out the match on the 13th.
Holes were exchanged for the first four until Royal got the upper hand towards the end of the front nine. A double bogey by Chen on the par-3 8th, which was playing at 94 yards, gave the UCLA sophomore a two-hole lead. Chen, who was a runner-up in the 2022 National Championship, holed a long putt for a half on 13, signalling her success to her teammate down the fairway.
A pull into the left rough on 14 then left Chen with 125 yards to the flag. She tugged her approach shot left, overshot the green with her next shot and had to scramble for a bogey. It wasn’t enough: Royal, who grew up nearby, rolled in an 11-footer for par to go 3 up with 4 to play. A birdie on 15 secured her victory.
Vo, who transferred to UCLA this season, won the 4th hole with a par to a double bogey and then birdied the par-5 6th hole to go two up. She went 3 up before Nagano rammed home a lengthy par putt on 10 to cut the lead. On the par-3 12th, Vo then hit a beautiful tee shot and poured in the putt to return to 3 up.
Nagano was in trouble from the tee on 13 and faced a 16-footer for par, which she missed. She was fortunate that Vo three-putted for bogey. When Vo birdied the 15th, Nagano had to follow her in to keep the match alive, which to her credit she did. The Japanese senior then took the next hole with an up and down from the back bunker. But not even a clutch bunker shot could save Nagano a third time and Vo sealed the Bruins' win with a par on 17.
Villegas birdied the first hole to go ahead but neither player could establish more than a one-hole lead early on; Huang eagled the 3rd, Villegas birded the 6th and 8th and the pair were all square through 10.
Oregon's inability to hole putts when it mattered continued as Huang failed to convert a putt for a half on 11. A par on the 12th finally enabled the Oregon player to level matters and the Taiwanese pulled two holes clear on the back nine. Alas, it was to no avail.
This eagerly anticipated anchor match saw Campos, one of the college game's best match players, against one of the week's most in form players in Romero (pictured above). It was Romero who took charge on the front nine with birdies on the 2nd, 3rd and 4th.
A par on the 6th enabled her to stretch her lead to five holes. A long birdie putt on 9 then gave Campos a glimmer of hope heading into the back nine. A Romero bogey on 10 cut the lead to three holes but she was inflicted a first ever match play defeat on her opponent with a par on 15 .
After making a mess of the first hole, Avery (pictured above) rebounded by winning holes 2, 4 and 6 to go 2 up. The pair halved the par-4 7th with double bogeys before a 7-foot putt for a par on 10 saw Heck halve the lead.
A Heck three-putt from long range on the par-3 12th allowed Avery to restore her two-hole advantage. Birdies on 13 and 15 by the experienced Cardinal star then got the match back to all-square.
On the fiendish, downwind par-3 16th, Avery held the green with her tee shot and then sunk a long birdie putt. Both players hit huge drives down 17 but Heck could not hold the sun-baked green. She was unable to get up and down, which gave Southern California the point. At the end, these two close friends walked off the green arm in arm.
The first hole was halved in par before the Stanford senior took charge with wins on the 2nd, 4th, 5th and 7th, three of which were achieved with pars. Englemann then went five up with a par on the dogleg par-4 9th hole.
Englemann eventually won her second match of the day, closing out her opponent with a birdie on the par-4 13th.
In this battle of the freshmen, Cardinal's No.1 player got the upper hand on the front nine, going 2 up on the 6th when Shoemaker made a bogey. Shoemaker levelled with a par on 9 before the Spaniard birdied the par-5 10th to restore her slender advantage.
Sampredo's putter began to betray her coming down the stretch, with lip-outs on 14, 15 and 16. The latter enabled Shoemaker to cut the deficit in half. A crooked drive from Sampredo on 17 left her chopping out of the fescue. Shoemaker had two for the win and rolled her putt up to a few inches to take the game down the last. They did not get to finish but a half seems like a fair result in such a tight match.
The first five holes were halved in par and there was nothing to separate them before Ganne played a superb tee shot into 8 that finished a few feet from the hole. The birdie gave her a 1 up lead. Navarossa hit back with a par on 10 to get the match back to all square. The player who last year beat Rose Zhang at this stage to get Southern California into the final then went one up on the 11th.
But from somewhere, Ganne found a different gear with wins on holes 15, 16 and 17 to secure a 2&1 victory. Her approach shot into the baked out 17th green was the highlight, grabbing and coming to a stop six feet from the hole. She rolled it in from there.
A Xu bogey on the 1st hole gave the Bruins No.1 an advantage that she held onto through the first six holes. Birdies on 11 and 12 from the Stanford player turned the tide and gave her an important one-hole lead. Xu's par on 15 then enabled her to double the advantage at a point when all the other matches on the course were still in the balance.
Both players ended in the back bunker on 16 but Park left her first attempt in the sand. Xu had a 12-foot putt for par to win the match for Stanford. It never looked like missing.