BATON ROUGE – LSU sophomore Taylor Riley was the second seed into the match play round of the California State Amateur Championship and won three matches before falling in the semifinals on Friday.
Riley finished the 36-hole qualifying at 7-under par 137 after shooting rounds of 70 and 67. That easily put her into the match play bracket where she won her matches each of the first two days by scores of 3&2 and 4&3 to advance to Friday mornings quarterfinals.
In the quarterfinals against Madelene Gamble, Riley, who was also the San Diego city amateur champ, won two of the first three holes before Gamble tied the match back on the fifth hole. Gamble had a 1UP lead after 11 holes, but then Riley won the 12th, 14th and 16th holes to get a 2UP lead with two to play.
Gamble won the 17th hole but Riley parred the final hole to clinch the 1Up win.
In the semifinals against UCLA golfer Kate Villegas, Riley was unable to get anything going in the match as Villegas got off to a strong start and would eventually win 5&4.
Riley will now join Aine Donegan and Latanna Stone to represent LSU in the United States Women’s Amateur championship which is set for Los Angeles starting on Monday, Aug. 7.