CARLSBAD, Calif. — The Oregon women’s golf team is one win away from the national title match after defeating No. 2 seed LSU, 3-2, on Tuesday morning in the quarterfinals of the 2024 NCAA Championships at Omni La Costa Resort & Spa.
The No. 7 seeded Ducks advance to play No. 6 seed UCLA in the semifinals later on Tuesday, beginning at 1:15 p.m. PT. Golf Channel will have coverage beginning at 3 p.m.
Oregon got two points from its two seniors, Ching-Tzu Chen and Minori Nagano, before freshman Kiara Romero won her match on the 18th hole to send Oregon into the semifinals.
“I’m so proud of our group for coming together,” head coach Derek Radley said. “Our two senior leaders stepped up and put two points on the board, and our three freshmen are fighting like crazy. So honored and so proud to be going back to the final four.”
How it Happened: Nagano wasted little time to secure Oregon’s first point of the day, immediately picking up a 1 up advantage on the first hole. Her lead remained 1 up until the sixth hole, where she won her first of six straight holes to move to 7 up through 11. She halved her next hole and put her opponent away, 7&6.
Chen held a 3 up lead through 14 holes, after winning back-to-back holes to start the back nine. A pair of impressive birdies by LSU’s Carla Tejedo Mulet broughtChen’s lead to 1 up through 16, but Chen halved each of the final two holes to win, 1 up.
LSU pulled the match even with a pair of wins in the third and fourth pairings, leaving Romero on the course against LSU’s Aine Donegan. Romero was trailing through the first eight holes before winning No. 9 to pull even, and she picked up another win at No. 10 to go 1 up.
After Donegan tied the match again at No. 13, Romero bounced back to win No. 14 and move back in front. Donegan made a long birdie putt at No. 15 to put the pressure on Romero, but Oregon’s star freshman responded with a birdie putt of her own.
Romero again drained a birdie putt at No. 16 to move to 2 up with two holes to play. Donegan responded with a birdie at No. 17 to cut Romero’s lead to 1 up, but Romero made par on No. 18 to lock up Oregon’s spot in the semifinals.
What it Means: Oregon reaches the NCAA semifinals for the second time in program history, and will look to return to the national title match after finishing as the NCAA runner-up in 2022. The semifinals features only Pac-12 teams, with the winner between Oregon and UCLA advancing to face either Stanford or USC in the championship match on Wednesday afternoon.
NCAA Quarterfinal – Oregon 3, LSU 2
Ching-Tzu Chen (Oregon) def. Carla Tejedo Mulet (LSU), 1 up
Minori Nagano (Oregon) def. Taylor Riley (LSU), 7&6
Latanna Stone (LSU) def. Ting-Hsuan Huang (Oregon), 3&2
Ingrid Lindblad (LSU) def. Karen Tsuru (Oregon), 4&3
Kiara Romero (Oregon) def. Aine Donegan (LSU), 1 up
