BRADENTON, Fla. – Baylor women's golf earned a spot in the 2015 NCAA Division I Women's Golf title match by winning a pair of matches on Tuesday at The Concession Golf Club. The Bears defeated Tennessee in the quarterfinal round in the morning, then came back to beat Duke in the semifinals later in the day.
Baylor's Lauren Whyte needed six playoff holes before defeating Duke's Lisa Maguire to send Baylor to the title match against Stanford, which defeated Arizona and USC on Tuesday. The Bears won 3-2 against Duke after defeating Tennessee 3-1-1 earlier in the day.
BU had to mount a furious comeback to defeat the Blue Devils. Duke held a 2-0 lead after defeating Hayley Davis and Giovana Maymon, forcing the Bears to win the last three matches to advance. Laura Lonardi was 1-up with two holes remaining, and she won on No. 17 to claim her match over Gurbani Singh 2-and-1. Then Dylan Kim was tied with the nation's top-ranked amateur golfer, Leona Maguire, with two holes remaining. Kim took the lead on No. 17, then halved the final hole to claim the match.
Whyte was 2-up with two remaining, but losses on No. 17 and No. 18 forced her into a playoff with Lisa Maguire. The pair started on the 10th hole and split the next five holes before Whyte broke through to win on No. 15 – the sixth playoff hole.
Baylor will go for its first-ever women's golf title and the fifth national championship in school history when it faces Stanford at 1:10 p.m. Wednesday. The match will be televised live on the Golf Channel.
HIGHLIGHTS
· Baylor is 4-1 this season in match play, with all matches against top-15 ranked teams. Back in March at the Liz Murphey Collegiate Classic, the Bears lost to No. 4 Duke and defeated No. 3 UCLA and No. 2 South Carolina. BU beat No. 12 Tennessee and avenged its lost to Duke on Tuesday.
· Lonardi improved to 5-0 in match play this season.
· Davis' loss to Duke's Celine Boutier was her first match-play defeat all season.
· Whyte didn't card a countable score in seven rounds of stroke play during the NCAA Tournament, and she lost her first match before coming up with a win in the afternoon to send BU to the title match.
· Baylor program firsts this season – first conference title, first regional title, first top-10 NCAA Championship finish, first shot at a national championship.
· All five Baylor players contributed at least one match play win on Tuesday.
STAT OF THE DAY
24 – the number of holes needed for Whyte to claim her match against Duke's Lisa Maguire. The pair was all-square after 18 holes, then halved the first five playoff holes before Whyte came out on top on No. 15.
TOP QUOTE #1
"Well, my feelings are this is a dream come true for everybody here at this table,” head coach Jay Goble said at the post-match press conference. “This is why we put in hard work every day, and this is, again, hard work is paying off for us this week. It's a lot of dreams realized for everybody here at this table.”
TOP QUOTE #2
“I was very lucky to have the whole team out there supporting and I was very lucky to have Jay (Goble) on the bag as well to calm the nerves a little bit,” Whyte said. “It was a long day. There was a lot of adrenaline at the end there, but I think it's sunk in this has happened and everybody is ready to go for tomorrow and really excited about what can happen.
WHAT'S NEXT
Baylor takes on Stanford at 1:10 p.m. CT Wednesday in the national championship match, which will be televised live on Golf Channel. Lonardi will be first off the tee against Stanford's Casey Danielson. Whyte will follow against Shannon Aubert, then Dylan Kim will face Lauren Kim and Maymon will take on Quirine Eijkenboom. Davis will anchor the BU lineup against Mariah Stackhouse.
MATCH PLAY RESULTS
Baylor 3-1-1 vs. Tennessee
Laura Lonardi (BU) 3-and-2 over Lucia Polo (UT)
Hannah Pietila (UT) 4-and-2 over Lauren Whyte (BU)
Hayley Davis (BU) 3-and-2 over A.J. Newell (UT)
Giovana Maymon (BU) 3-and-2 over Emmie Pietila (UT)
Dylan Kim (BU) halved vs. Anna Newell (UT)
Baylor 3-2 vs. Duke
Lauren Whyte (BU) halved-W in playoff over Lisa Maguire (Duke)
Sandy Choi (Duke) 6-and-5 over Giovana Maymon (BU)
Laura Lonardi (BU) 2-and-1 over Gurbani Singh (Duke)
Dylan Kim (BU) 1-up over Leona Maguire (Duke)
Celine Boutier (Duke) 3-and-2 over Hayley Davis (BU)
