CHULA, VISTA, Calif. – Rising sophomore Albane Valenzuela won two matches Thursday to advance to the quarterfinals of the 117th U.S. Women's Amateur Championship at San Diego Country Club.
The Olympian from Switzerland beat Cheyenne Knight of Aledo, Texas, 1-up in the morning, then downed Stephanie Lau of Fullerton, California, 4 and 3 in the afternoon. Valenzuela was 1-under in the first match and 4-under in the second, playing bogey-free golf in the latter.
She will face Robynn Ree of Redondo Beach, California on Friday at 1:40 p.m. PT, with the winner moving to the semifinals on Saturday. Ree is a rising junior at USC.
Senior-to-be Shannon Aubert of France won her morning match to reach the Round of 16, then fell short in the afternoon despite a valiant comeback against 14-year-old Lucy Li of Redwood Shores, California.
Aubert, the tournament medalist, birdied the first in the morning against Agathe Laisne of France, and never trailed in the hard-fought 2 and 1 victory. She took control in with a birdie at the par-5 16th hole and finished 3-under.
Li, who qualified for the U.S. Women's Open at age 11 and reached the Round of 32 last year, birdied the first two holes in the afternoon against Aubert, then held on. Aubert birdied 15, 16 and 17 to close to 1-down, but Li made a clutch up-and-down par save from the greenside bunker at the par-4 18th to halve the hole and earn the win.
Li wound up 4-under and Aubert 1-under.
For live scoring, visit GoStanford.com. FS1 will show live coverage from 4-7 p.m. PT.