FAYETTEVILLE -- Defending NCAA champion Arizona made themselves a tough out at the women's championships on Wednesday at Blessings Golf Club.
The No. 4 Wildcats, who eliminated No. 1 Southern California with a 3-2 victory late Tuesday, fell by the same score against No. 3 Duke in the Wednesday morning semifinals.
Arizona got points from senior Haley Moore and sophomore Yu-Sang Hou, but dropped a tight deciding match in the anchor position with senior Bianca Pagdanganan's 1-up loss to Duke's Gina Kim.
"I'm very proud of my team," Arizona Coach Laura Ianello said. "They fought, like Bianca, all the way to the very end.
"They fought really hard, and to be honest with you we had one player struggle so much this week that we really only had four players all week.
"My two seniors, Haley and Bianca, I will miss them so much next year. I just thanked them that they set a precedent for our program to achieve and succeed and set such a high standard."
Fassi honored
University of Arkansas senior Maria Fassi, the 2019 NCAA individual champion, was named the PING WGCA player of the year as awarded to the best collegiate player in the country by a panel of the Women's Golf Coaches Association.
Criteria for the award, which has been given since 1987, is head-to-head competition, comparison with common opponents, scoring average, finishes in regular season and tournaments, and strength of schedule.
Fassi, who posted a 71.18 scoring average this season, finished her collegiate career Tuesday in match play after winning NCAA medalist honors Monday.
Fassi, a native of Hidalgo, Mexico, has 10 career wins, including the SEC individual title last month in Birmingham, Ala.
Deacon blast
Two Wake Forest golfers among the top three pairings weren't messing around in their morning matches against Auburn.
Jennifer Kupcho, the 2018 NCAA individual champion, drummed Auburn's Kaleigh Telfer 6 and 4 after charging out to a three-hole lead through four on the back nine. Consecutive birdies on Nos. 16 and 17 stretched her lead to four, and Kupcho won back-to-back holes again on Nos. 4 and 5 to close out the match.
Emilia Migliaccio, who had a runaway win in Tuesday's quarterfinals over Arkansas freshman Ximena Gonzalez, did the same to Auburn's Brooke Sansom. Migliaccio won the first three holes as Sansom went double bogey, double bogey, bogey. Migliaccio led by five holes at the turn and closed out her 7 and 5 victory with a par on No. 4 as Sansom bogeyed.
Benton honored
Arkansas senior Kaylee Benton was named the recipient of the Dinah Shore Trophy, which is given to a collegiate women's golfer who makes an impact through her leadership on the course and through charitable endeavors.
Candidates for the award have to maintain a 3.2 grade-point average, play in half of her team's events and have a scoring average of 78 or better.
Benton, a two-time All-America scholar, had a 72.15 scoring average this season and tied for runner-up behind teammate Maria Fassi at the SEC championships.
Benton also has donated time to the Hurricane Harvey canned food drive, the Boys & Girls Club and the children's ministry at the Rock Church, among many charitable endeavors.
The award comes with a $10,000 grant to the golf program at Arkansas.
Early round
The BYU men's team teed off for its practice round Wednesday afternoon, one day ahead of the rest of the field.
The reason? The Cougars do not engage in athletic events on Sundays. BYU will play its "third" round today, then engage in its first two rounds with the rest of the field on Friday and Saturday. If the Cougars make the cut to 15 teams, they will be back on schedule with the other teams Sunday.
Moore money
Arizona senior Haley Moore improved to 5-0 in match play with her 4-and-3 win over Duke's Jaravee Boonchant in the Wednesday morning round. Moore has trailed in each of her matches at Blessings.
Arizona Coach Laura Ianello said Moore deserves every good thing that comes her way.
"I'm so proud of her because nobody deserves it more than her," Ianello said.
Moore scored the winning point in Arizona's national championship victory over Alabama at Karsten Creek in Stillwater, Okla., last May.
"In the past 12 months we have seen this young woman, Haley Moore, take it to a whole-new level of confidence from the national championship last year," the Golf Channel's Steve Burkowski said.
Before dark
The NCAA championships had caught a series of bad breaks with weather, but they caught a huge break late Tuesday night when several tight matches were decided just before darkness descended upon Blessings Golf Club.
The 24-hole match won by Duke's Virginia Elena Carta over Stanford's Ziyi Wang concluded on No. 6 just before it became too dark to see.
"It was dark," Carta told the Golf Channel. "Having the team out, I told myself to never lose hope. Even if it was dark, I wanted to finish this hole. I knew I had a good opportunity to just make a birdie and end the match. It was a close match all the way so it was nice."
Auburn's Mychael O'Berry closed out Texas' Sara Kouskova on No. 18 in the twilight. Her teammate, Brooke Sansom, ended the evening with a 7-foot birdie to down Emilee Hoffman in extra holes. If any of those matches had gone one more hole, there might have been a suspension for darkness that would have carried the quarterfinals into Wednesday.
Same name?
The Auburn vs. Wake Forest semifinal matchup paired head coaches with last names pronounced exactly the same but spelled differently.
Auburn Coach Melissa Luellen, a graduate of Tulsa University, is in her fourth season as coach of the Tigers. A four-time All-American with the Golden Hurricane, Luellen was an 11-year veteran on the LPGA Tour who won the 2009 national championship during her tenure as coach at Arizona State (2002-15).
Wake Forest Coach Kim Lewellen, a 1993 graduate of North Carolina, is in her first season coaching the Demon Deacons. Lewellen was a three-time ACC coach of the year during an 11-year tenure at Virginia. She was named national college coach of the year by the LPGA in 2011. Lewellen was a two-time All-ACC player for the Tar Heels and a first-team All-American in 1993 when she won the NCAA East Regional.
Tiger bounce
Auburn recovered from an opening-round 21-over-par 313 and a tie for 11th place to edge its way into the match portion of the championships. The Tigers fired a 3-over 295 in round two, then squeezed in two strokes ahead of Illinois and Purdue for the final spot in match play, leaving the Big Ten without a participant in the final eight.
The Tigers logged the biggest upset of match play, a 3-2 comeback victory over Texas on Tuesday, before falling by a wide margin to No. 6 Wake Forest in the semifinals.
"Beating Texas was outstanding," Auburn Coach Melissa Luellen said. "Just to flip a couple of those matches toward the end let us know that anything is possible. In match play, you really don't want to get down early, and we did it again today. It's hard to do it back to back to back."
Record books
The Golf Channel analysts broke out the superlatives to describe Auburn's shocking comeback win over No. 1 seed Texas late Tuesday.
"That is one for the history books. Very impressive job today," analyst Kay Cockerill said.
"Auburn was down and out, but they were not going anywhere," Steve Burkowski added.
SEC down
No. 6 Wake Forest eliminated both of the SEC teams that advanced to match play in back-to-back rounds.
The Deacons downed No. 10 Arkansas 3-2 late Tuesday night when Siyun Liu reversed a 1-hole deficit against Dylan Kim through 15 holes by winning Nos. 7 and 8 with birdies, then halving No. 9 for a 1-up win.
Wake Forest dispatched No. 13 Auburn 4-0-1 in the semifinals with an overwhelming display of force.
Sports on 05/23/2019