Women’s golf finishes first in stroke-play, moves to match-play at NCAAs
Freshman Lilia Vu, the No. 6-ranked golfer in the nation, finished stroke-play with her best day on the links. Vu shot her tournament-best 67, five under par, to lead the Bruins and finish in sixth place. (UCLA Athletics)
By Cole Baldecchi
May 24, 2016 12:14 a.m.
The fourth and final round of stroke-play at the NCAA women’s golf championship came to a close at the Eugene Country Club with No. 3 UCLA women’s golf at the top of the leaderboard.
The team shot -6 from the field to end stroke play with a total score of -8. No. 12 Stanford shot an impressive -9 on the day, but that was only good enough for them to place second with a total score of -9. No. 2 USC began the day in first place, only to shoot an uninspired +2, which dropped them to third place.
Individually, freshman Lilia Vu, the No. 6-ranked golfer in the nation, led the Bruins shooting five under par to finish in sixth place. She shot her tournament-best 67 for the round, the best score posted by a UCLA golfer in the tournament. No. 1 junior Bronte Law was the second-best Bruin, shooting four under par, tying her for ninth in the standings. Senior Louise Ridderström rounded out UCLA’s top three, shooting even par for the day and finishing one under par.
Because UCLA is at the top of the leaderboard, it receives the top seed going into match-play. In match-play, two teams go head to head on individual holes and do not tally up strokes at the end of the round. The NCAA started using match-play to determine national championship winners starting in 2015.
Tomorrow, the No. 1-seeded Bruins will play in the quarterfinals against the No. 8-seeded Oregon Ducks, with the first tee starting at 7:50 a.m. Oregon will have home-course advantage playing on its home course in Eugene.
UCLA women’s golf will need three match-play series victories in order to win its first national championship since 2011. A national championship would propel them to the third-most national titles of any NCAA Division I women’s golf team and give UCLA its 114th title overall.
