Northwestern senior Lauryn Nguyen won on her first extra hole to put the Wildcats into the semifinals of the NCAA women’s golf championship Tuesday after freshman Hsin Tai Lin knocked off individual national champion Maria José Marin of Arkansas.
Third-seeded Northwestern will take on No. 2 seed Oregon on Tuesday afternoon at La Costa Resort & Spa in Carlsbad, Calif. The Ducks defeated Texas 3-2 in the quarterfinals.
Top seed Stanford will face fourth-seeded Florida State in the other semifinal as the top four finishers in stroke play all advanced. The championship match is Wednesday.
Nguyen lost two of the last three regulation holes in a seesaw battle with Clarisa Temelo to send the match to extras, but she rebounded with a par on the par-4 seventh to secure the Wildcats’ 3-2 victory.
Lin had tied the score at 2 when she birdied the seventh to close out José Marin 3 and 2. The Razorbacks sophomore won the individual title by two shots Monday as stroke play concluded.
Northwestern’s first point came from freshman Elise Lee, who rallied from a 3-down deficit at the turn against Reagan Zibilski. Lee won three straight holes on Nos. 1-3, took the lead with a par at the seventh and held on for a 1-up victory.
The Wildcats completed 72 holes of stroke play Monday in third place at 2 over par — 29 strokes behind Stanford and eight Oregon. Nguyen was the Wildcats’ top individual finisher at 2 under, which tied for 14th, while sophomore Ashley Yun finished 19th at even par.
José Marin kept her poise down the stretch and closed with a birdie for a 3-under 69 to become the third woman from Arkansas to win the NCAA title, joining Stacy Lewis (2007) and Maria Fassi (2019).
“I have mixed emotions and the strongest is I’m super happy right now,” José Marin said. “I trust my game on every single shot. I knew I was capable of a great round, and it was.”
Stanford earned the No. 1 seed in match play for the fifth consecutive year. The Cardinal have won two of the last three national titles.
José Marin seized control with a 65 in Sunday’s third round and stayed in front until Stanford’s Kelly Xu and Florida State’s Mirabel Ting made a charge.
José Marin made her lone bogey Monday with a three-putt from 35 feet on the 13th hole, and Xu holed an 8-foot birdie putt on the 11th to pull within one shot. On her next hole, José Marin ran her birdie putt about 5 feet by and holed that for par.
Xu fell back after going long of the par-3 12th, chipping to 6 feet and making bogey. But then it was Ting running off four birdies in six holes on the back nine to get within two shots. José Marin didn’t blink, however, and sealed it with a 10-foot birdie putt on the par-5 closing hole.
She finished at 12-under 276 and earns a spot in the U.S. Women’s Open next week at Erin Hills in Wisconsin.
Ting also made a closing birdie for a 68 to finish second. Moments after José Marin made her final birdie, Xu hit her tee shot on the par-3 16th into the middle of the pond short of the green and took double bogey. She birdied the final hole for a 71 to finish third.
Associated Press contributed.
