May 21, 2024 • by Dan Davies
Oregon, UCLA, Stanford and Southern California advance to the final four at the NCAA DI Women's National Championships at Omni La Costa Resort & Spa. The semi finals will be on the course at 1.15pm local time.
UCLA (6) beat Texas A&M (3) 3-0
Stanford (1) beat Auburn (8) 3-0
Southern California (4) beat Clemson (5) 3-1
"You get this far and every team is great. I'm so proud of my group for coming together. Our two senior leaders have both put a point on the board and our freshman are fighting like crazy."
"We have a great group of young ladies and to make it to match play was our goal. Our team enjoys match play. We like the mindset of it. We came out strong and played really well the first day and then pretty decently the next two days. We struggled a bit yesterday but still managed the No. 5 seed. I’m really proud of this group. I think it shows our team and what we are capable of and we have four players coming back from this team."
“I think none of us knew really what to expect coming out, but Omni La Costa has done a great job rolling out the red carpet for this championship for the players, the teams and the coaches. It is an unbelievable task to rebuild a golf course and have us be the first people to play it. We just keep trying to learn the golf course a little more. I think it was setup for scoring today and we were able to manage some of the scoring on our side, but unfortunately Southern Cal just scored a little bit better.”
"We end the year in a higher ranked position than any team in Clemson women’s golf history. Our young history — 11 years, 10 opportunities because of the covid year. It is really exciting. We have built a great culture and four of these ladies will be back next year so I’m looking forward to the future."
"We got off to a great start and played really well on the front. I think we were ahead in enough matches, but we lost a little momentum at the turn. We didn’t play these holes very well and lost momentum. We just weren’t very clean today. We will learn from it and get better."
"What a test. The fact that this is year one, I look forward to coming back here hopefully for many years to come and learning from the property and the golf course. We all stay on property and I think Gil Hanse has done a golf course that is fitting for both men and women. The fact that was done year one was amazing."
"It is the end of an era for us. Those three young ladies that we are sending out in the real world today really transformed our program and changed my life and I’ll be ever thankful for them. We have some experience coming back too so I’m excited for that. It’s a celebration and still we won in some way shape or form. They have bonded as sisters and that is what means the most to me."
"That’s match play. They (Oregon) played well and we had two matches come down to the 18th hole. If one of those flips or goes the other way, it’s a different story and maybe we have tears of joy instead of tears of sadness. I think it was a closing of a window with our three seniors, and that makes it a little tougher to swallow. But I’m super proud of how we played. Carla (Tejedo Mulet) was 3-down with three to go and got it to the 18th hole. Aine (Donegan) was 2-down with two to go and got it to the 18th hole. I’m just proud of the way they fought. It’s match play and there’s only one team that is kind of happy at the end of this thing. I’d like to look at the big picture of the whole season, and we did some pretty cool things this year and should be very proud of what we accomplished."
"We had a great experience here. It was nice staying on property. It was a tough championship golf course that tested your driving ability, your approach shots were very key, and your putting and chipping. I think you saw you could make some birdies, but you could also make some big numbers. Because of that, there was a wide range of scores. It definitely was a championship test and we had a great time here."
"We won three times including a NCAA Regional, which those don’t come easily. They don’t hand those things out. We made it to the semi-finals of the SEC Match Play. I’ll remember those times and I’ll remember the wins. We’ve got a very good team and we’ll probably finish in the top-five in the country, and that’s not easy to do. I think there’s a lot of positives to take from this season. I told Ingrid (Lindblad) that I couldn’t hug her, Latanna (Stone) or Carla that long or I would probably start to cry, and I’m not a big crier. They mean so much. I can’t thank them enough for what they’ve done for this program to help us become a mainstay in the top 10."
"Anna Davis got down a couple early and kind of chipped away and fought back. I hate that she lost the 18th hole (when she had a chance to close out her match) and then had to go to the 16th hole to continue. I know she’s very disappointed with her result, because if we grab that match then there’s hope and anything can happen on this golf course. We kept fighting. A couple little things here and there, it just doesn’t take much on this course. If you steer a little right or left, it will set you up in some precarious situations and you’ve got to have a great short game around here. Hats off to Stanford, as I thought their short game was really, really good and that was the difference."