With the scores tied at 2-2, freshman Natalie Blonien, who was making her match play debut for Razorbacks, defeated WGCA Co-Freshman of the Year Kiara Romero on the last green with a lengthy birdie putt.

Blonien fought back from two down after 14, earning a bear hug from Head Coach Shauna Taylor after her putt found the bottom of the cup.

‘To be on TV and have this excitement in match play is such a good preparatory tool for what we’re going to see this spring,’ Coach Taylor told the golf Channel afterwards. ‘We call them building blocks and this is just one more block for where we want to get to.’

In a field of six teams all ranked inside the top 30, Oregon qualified as top seed for the match play final on 27 over par thru 54 holes. The Ducks finished one clear of Arkansas with both teams boasting three players inside the top-10. 

Oregon, #13 in the first ranking, finished second in the season-opening ANNIKA Intercollegiate and fifth in the Windy City Collegiate Classic. The Ducks’ one-over-par closing team total (281) was comfortably the best of the week and pulled them 14 shots clear of the Razorbacks.

Carolina Chacarra (above), a 2023 NCAA champion with Wake Forest, led the individual tournament, winning by four and nine respectively from two other players on the ANNIKA Award Fall Watchlist, Kiara Romero and Lottie Woad of Florida State.

In testing winds on the first day at Oklahoma City Golf & Country Club, the Spanish senior hit the front in the first round with a superb four-under-par 66. Her four-under 54-hole total was the lowest of either men or women and secured her the third collegiate title of her career. 

Chacarra led the stroke play categories for par-3s, par-4s and par-5s and finished joint top with 10 birdies. In the third and fourth place playoff, she defeated Hannah Darling of South Carolina in the anchor match as the Deacons ran out 4.5 to 0.5 winners.

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