No. 1 Stanford dominated NCAA Women’s Golf this season, finishing undefeated in stroke play. All five of its players in the NCAA Championship match against No. 11 Northwestern yesterday were ranked in the top 20 in the country.
But the Wildcats, fresh off beating No. 2 Oregon in the semifinals, pulled off the improbable, besting the Cardinal 3-2 in match play. Diana Lee was the closer for Northwestern in Southern California, sinking a par putt on the 18th hole to secure the victory.
The win marks Northwestern’s first National Championship in program history. Head coach Emily Fletcher and assistant Beth Miller have worked together to achieve this moment for 17 seasons at the university.
After the match, Fletcher praised her team for staying within themselves and believing in their ability to pull off the upset.
“I think more than doing what people don’t think you can do, it’s about doing what this group thought it could do,” Fletcher said. “And that’s all they did.”
The three winners for Northwestern on Wednesday were Lee, Lauryn Nguyen and Hsin Tai Lin. Lee finished a tight match with Andrea Revuelta one up to win the clinching match. But before that, Nguyen also won by one hole and Tai Lin won commandingly by a score of 3&2.
Ashley Yun and Elise Lee fell to their opponents in the championship, but they were crucial to the tournament run. Both players won their matches against No. 6 Arkansas in the quarterfinals. It was truly a team effort to get the job done and make history.
The win marks Northwestern’s second National Championship this school year after Field Hockey won in the fall. It’s the university’s 12th championship spanning all sports in school history.
