BRADENTON, Fla. - All-American Mariah Stackhouse was sixth and fellow All-American Lauren Kim tied for seventh to lead Stanford in the final round of stroke play Monday at the NCAA Championships. The women's golf team went from seventh to fourth overall after a final-round 1-under-par 287, the only under-par score by any team in the tournament at The Concession Golf Club.
Stanford's final round, which was an astounding 36 strokes better than its second round, came with red scores from Kim (-3) and Stackhouse (-2). Both had four birdies but each bogeyed their final hole.
Kim was third at the NCAA showdown in 2014 and Stackhouse improved 27 spots from last season's finale. It was the first time Stanford placed two student-athletes in the top 10 of the medalist race since 1996.
"Today was a huge boost for our team going into match play," Kim said. "Even when we were fatigued and exhausted, we still made good decisions to put us in the best spot to pull out good scores. We know where to hit the ball on these greens to get a chance at birdie, and that's what we did today. Our team is excited to go into match play with this momentum."
Alabama's Emma Talley (70-73-73-69) won the title with a 3-under 285.
The Cardinal (293-323-296-287) was 47-over after 72 holes for its best stroke-play finish since taking second in 2002. Quirine Eijkenboom (85-84-79-73) was 1-over on the day, 12 strokes better than her opening round, and went 1-under on the back nine. Shannon Aubert (73-81-75-75) posted a 3-over and Casey Danielson (81-87-74-76) was 4-over with three birdies.
Duke (+45) and Baylor (+46) took the second and third spots, respectively.
USC (+40) was first through four rounds of stroke play and one of four Pac-12 Conference schools to advance to match play. Stanford joins USC, Arizona and Washington in the eight-team match play event to determine the team champion. Fourth-seeded Stanford will face fifth-seeded Arizona in the quarterfinals Tuesday beginning at 4:50 a.m. (PT). Golf Channel will broadcast the event live with results available at GoStanford.com.
This is the first time that the NCAA women's championships will feature match play.