CARLSBAD, Calif. — For the third consecutive season, Stanford women’s golf will play for a national championship. The Cardinal knocked off upstart Eastern Michigan in the match play semifinals to secure its spot in the championship match on Wednesday afternoon.
Eastern Michigan became the biggest story in the golf world this week. The Eagles had never qualified for the NCAA Championship in program history, then made the cut to match play and then beat fourth-seeded Texas to advance to the semifinals. Facing a team with nothing to lose can be dangerous, but Stanford did not take Eastern Michigan lightly.
Meja Örtengren continued an impressive day and came out of the gates hot. After turning her morning match around and winning, she won three of the first four holes against Erina Tan to put the match seemingly out of reach early on. That lead stayed between two and four holes for the rest of the match, with Örtengren eventually winning on the 15th green for her second victory of the day. Considering where she was on the course just one day ago, her performance cannot be overstated.
For a while, it looked like the Stanford seniors were going to close it out. Both Megha Ganne and Kelly Xu held 3up advantages for some time, but it was Andrea Revuelta who got the next team point on the board for Stanford. She did not take her first lead in the match until 16, where Jasmine Leovao was in the bunker, leading to a double bogey. That set Revuelta up with a chance to win it on, and she knocked down an eight-foot putt for birdie to wrap it up. Like Örtengren, it was her second match play win of the day.
The final point could have come from either Ganne or Xu, but Ganne clinched first. She took an early stranglehold on her match against Baiyok Sukterm by winning three of the first six holes. From there, she continued to play steady golf all afternoon, with consecutive birdies on holes 9 and 10 to set herself up to clinch early on the back nine. She solidified it with a par on 15, wrapping up the victory for Stanford and another berth in the finals.
Stanford will face second-seeded USC in a West Coast clash for the NCAA Championship. The Cardinal is 2-1 all-time against the Trojans in match play at the NCAA Championship, winning in 2015 and 2024 while losing in 2023. The 2024 win put Stanford into the match play finals, where the Cardinal eventually beat UCLA for its most recent national championship.
The pairings for Tuesday’s match against USC are below:
- Paula Martín Sampedro (STAN) vs. Catherine Park (USC)
- Andrea Revuelta (STAN) vs. Kylie Chong (USC)
- Meja Örtengren (STAN) vs. Jasmine Koo (USC)
- Kelly Xu (STAN) vs. Elise Lee (USC)
- Megha Ganne (STAN) vs. Bailey Shoemaker (USC)
NCAA Quarterfinals: No. 1 Stanford def. Eastern Michigan, 3-0
- Meja Örtengren (STAN) def. Erina Tan (EMU), 4&3
- Andrea Revuelta (STAN) def. Jasmine Leovao (EMU), 2&1
- Paula Martín Sampedro (STAN) vs. Janae Leovao (EMU), 1up thru 16
- Kelly Xu (STAN) vs. Savannah de Bock (EMU), 2up thru 15
- Megha Ganne (STAN) def. Baiyok Sukterm (EMU), 4&3
Order of Finish: 1, 2, 5*