Aggies Women's Golf Completes Best Season Ever, Falls to Wake Forest in NCAA Championship Semifinals
The Texas A&M Aggies women's golf team lost to the No. 2 Wake Forest Demon Deacons 3-0 on Thursday in the semifinals of the NCAA Championships at the Grayhawk Golf Club in Scottsdale, Arizona.
In doing so, they completed the best season in the history of the women's golf program at A&M.
The Aggies beat the No. 11 Texas Longhorns 3-1 in the quarterfinals to advance to the semis, but Wake Forest was too much for A&M. It's the second-consecutive year the Aggies have advanced to the semis.
The semifinals in the NCAA Championships are match play rather than stroke play, always leading to excitement leading into the finals.
In the quarterfinals against No. 11 Texas, Junior Zoe Slaughter was down one hole after No.3, but dominated the rest of the way to win 3&2, clinching the point for the Aggies in just under 3.5 hours. She got up and down for a par on No. 16 with a 12-foot put to tie the hole and end the match.
Blanca Fernandez Garcia-Poggio, playing her senior season for A&M went down two holes early but came back by No. 11 to take the lead. She reached the green in two on the par-5 11th and two-putted from 35 feet for a birdie. She went on to win the match 1up.
Sophomore Adela Cernousek was in a tight match the whole round, as she and her opponent were within one point of each other the whole back nine. Finally, on No. 15 Cernousek took the lead for good and finished No. 18 1up. She is now 3-0 in match play at the NCAA Championships dating to last year.
Graduate student Hailee Cooper was 1up in her match and on the 18th fairway when the match was clinched. Jennie Park fell in her match 2&1.
But things went south for the Aggies in the semifinals against No. 2 Wake Forest. The Demon Deacons got two early points as Slaughter lost 2&1 and Cooper lost 4&2.
Park was leading her match on the final hole but dropped a shot to force a playoff, which was also on No. 18.
Cernousek was tied on 18 in regulation as Fernandez Garcia-Poggio had to win her final hole to extend her match. Fernandez Garcia-Poggio bogeyed No. 18 while Wake Forest was in for par, awarding the hole and the match to the Demon Deacons.
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