The Texas A&M women’s golf team teed off at the par 72, 6,276-yard Atlanta Athletic Club in Atlanta for the ninth annual East Lake Cup Cup on Oct. 30-Nov. 1.
The East Lake Cup is a collegiate competition held every fall that features the top performing women’s teams from the NCAA Golf Championships.
Monday kicked off the tournament with 18 holes of stroke-play to determine the match play pairings for Day 2. The final day consisted of the two winning teams from semifinals and a consolation match for the teams that remained.
The field included four teams — A&M, the 2022 national champions; Stanford, the 2023 national champions; Wake Forest and the 2023 national runner-up, USC.
The Cardinal led Day 1 on both the team and individual leaderboards. The individual title was a fight between teammates amongst Cardinal senior Sadie Englemann and sophomore Megha Ganne. Aggie graduate Jennie Park held a steady play and tied second with Ganne at 1-under. Englemann ultimately took the victory at 3-under 69.
Day 1 placed Stanford even at 288, Wake Forest second at 3-over, Southern California third at 4-over and A&M fourth at 13-over.
Match Play paired A&M versus Stanford and Wake Forest versus Southern California.
The Aggies and the Cardinal played an exciting round that ended with the winner of 22 holes between Aggie senior Zoe Slaughter and Ganne.
A&M carried the lead as it went into the back nine. Graduate Blanca Fernández García-Poggio secured the first point of the match with Park right behind her with the second point. Englemann and freshman Paula Martin Sampedro secured the Cardinal its 2 points, leaving it up to Slaughter and Ganne to claim the third point and victory.
After a back-and-forth fight through four playoff holes, Ganne took the win and sent Stanford into the Championship match.
Megha Ganne defeats Zoe Slaughter in 22 holes and @StanfordWGolf is moving on to the @eastlakecup finals! 🌲 @GoStanford
📺: Golf Channel & @peacock | #NCAAGolf pic.twitter.com/6vrAL2e4HZ
— Golf Channel (@GolfChannel) October 31, 2023
The Demon Deacons were locked in and ready to defend their title against the Trojans.
USC freshman Bailey Shoemaker and senior Brianna Navarrosa put up the first 2 points for the Trojans and took the lead early into the day. Wake Forest senior Mimi Rhodes captured the first point for the Deacs with junior Carolina Chaccara not far behind with the second point to tie the score. Demon Deacon graduate Rachel Kuehn faced Trojan Cindy Kou for the final point.
Kuehn took the victory, sending Wake Forest into the championship match against Stanford.
A&M faced USC for third place and took an early lead in Day 3. Park finished her match 9&8 against Kou and secured the first point for the Aggies. Avery tied the score up at 1 with her defeat of Slaughter. Navarossa captured the lead with the second point for the Trojans at 3&2. Garcia-Poggio brought the score back to a tie with the second point for the Aggies. USC sophomore Catherine Park finalized the win with a score of 4&3 and claimed the bronze medal for the Trojans.
The 2022 and 2023 national champions faced off for their final tournament of the fall season. Kuehn took the first point for the Demon Deacons at 5&4 against Englemann with freshman Macy Pate behind her with the second point to take a solid lead over the Cardinal.
Sampedro put Stanford on the board 1UP against Rhodes.
Wake Forest sophomore Anne-Sterre den Dunnen went head-to-head against Stanford sophomore Kelly Xu through 21 holes. Xu kept the Cardinal in the game and tied the score at 2.
It all came down to Ganne and Chacarra to claim the final point.
Chacarra defeated Ganne 1UP and brought home the win for Wake Forest.
This tournament wraps up the fall slate of the Aggie women’s golf season. It will return to the greens at the Grand Reserve Golf Club in Rio Grande, Puerto Rico for the Puerto Rico Classic on Feb. 4-6.
