National Championship BoundNational Championship Bound
Women's Golf

National Championship Bound

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SCOTTSDALE, Ariz. - No. 1 seeded Stanford women's golf program is headed to the national championship match after defeating No. 5 seed Auburn, 3-2, on Tuesday afternoon at Grayhawk Golf Club. The Cardinal, who had defeated No. 8 seed Georgia earlier on Tuesday, will take on No. 2 seed Oregon at 1:35 p.m. on Wednesday afternoon.

"It was hard today on that back nine," Margot and Mitch Milias Director of Women's Golf Anne Walker said. "It was very hot, it's a demanding golf course, and it was getting late in the day. They dug really deep, and our team dug a little deeper."

The Cardinal got wins in the afternoon from Rose Zhang, Aline Krauter and Brooke Seay, who clinched her match with a birdie putt on the 18th green. Zhang won 5&4 over Mychael O'Berry; Krauter clinched 2 up on No. 17 with a par to defeat Elina Sinz and Seay finished 1 up over Kaleigh Telfer.

"(Aline) is really hard to ruffle her feathers in match play," Walker said. "She won the British Amateur and the day she won that she was three down through six. She's been in that situation and knows how quickly things can turn, and I think that serves her very well."

Zhang built a commanding lead of 4 up through four holes and grew that to 5 up on No. 7 and 6 up on No. 10. O'Berry would win No. 13 to extend the match to No. 14, but Zhang would par to halve the hole and clinch the match.

Krauter started her match with a win on hole one, but lost the next three holes to fall 2 down after four. She'd win No. 6 to make the turn 1 down, but won No. 10 and No. 11 to swing her match to 1 up. A win at No. 14 grew her lead to two and a huge par save from 20 feet on No. 16 allowed her to take a 2 up lead with two holes to play to No. 17, where she'd clinch her match moments before Seay. 

Seay started out hot with two wins on the first two holes, but losses on No. 7 and No. 8 tied the match, where it remained until a Seay win on No. 13. On No. 16, Seay had to register a huge up-and-down to save par and halve the hole, and Telfer won No. 17 so the match went to No. 18 all tied. Seay knocked her second shot to 25 feet on the green on the par 5 finishing hole, and after Telfer missed a birdie putt, Seay, who had lagged her eagle attempt to four feet, knocked it in to clinch the match.

Stanford is the only program in the country to qualify for match play all seven times since the format was implemented in 2015. The Cardinal owns one national championship (2015) in program history and Wednesday will mark its third national championship match appearance (also 2016). 

Pairings for Wednesday's match against the Ducks are:
1:35 » Brooke Seay vs Ching-Tzu Chen
1:45 » Aline Krauter vs Hsin-Yu Lu
1:55 » Sadie Englemann vs Briana Chacon
2:05 » Rachel Heck vs Tze-Han Lin
2:15 » Rose Zhang vs Sofie Kibsgaard Nielsen

During Tuesday's semifinal match, two Cardinal were honored by the Women's Golf Coaches Association. Senior Aline Krauter was named the Dinah Shore Trophy Award winner (joining Casey Danielson as Stanford's winners) and Rose Zhang was named both the National Player and Freshman of the Year.