BATON ROUGE – It took all five matches and a couple of extra holes but the LSU Tigers have advanced to the finals of the East Lake Cup at the East Lake Golf Club in Atlanta, Georgia.
The Tigers defeated Oregon, 3-2, and will face Southern California on Wednesday, a 3-2 winner over UCLA in the other semifinal.
For LSU, it was a dramatic finish in the Tigers favor after Oregon edged LSU, 3-2, in the quarterfinal match of the NCAA Championships last May.
Josefin Widal, the freshman from Sweden, in the fourth match of the day, rallied to tie what would be the deciding match against Oregon’s Karen Tsuru late in regulation after Tsuru took a 1UP lead, sending the match to extra holes.
On the second extra hole, Tsuru hit her tee shot into the bunker, while Widal was just off the fairway in short rough. Oregon’s shot was short of the green, while Widal, from 126 yards, hit on the large green and rolled all the way through to the downslope of the collection area.
Widal then came back and hit an impeccable chip shot that was conceded for par by Oregon. Tsuru could not make her long putt for par and the Tigers had a much needed third win.
“Match play is never easy and today proved that,” said LSU Coach Garrett Runion. “We preach competitive toughness and fighting till the very end and that’s exactly what we needed today to advance to the championship match. It was good to see our senior Aine Donegan control her match from the very beginning and put a point on the board early.
“Our two freshmen, Rocio and Josefin showed some big time guts, winning their matches in extra holes. It wasn’t always perfect but they all kept fighting and found a way to win.”
The Tigers got on the scoreboard quickly as senior Aine Donegan of Ireland, scored a convincing 6
&5 victory over Ting Hsuan-Huang in a match that ended after 13 holes.
Donegan had two birdies and an eagle on the front nine and then birdied the 10th and 11th holes, winning the 13th with a par to end the match.
Another freshman, Rocio Tejedo, got LSU’s second point and it was another match that went to extra holes. Both players, Tejedo and Oregon’s Tong An, had leads in the match but it would be on the 19th hole that Tejedo was able to get the advantage and sink a long par putt for the win.
The championship match of the East Lake Cup will air at 2 p.m. CT on The Golf Channel on Wednesday.
East Lake Cup
East Lake Golf Club – Atlanta, Georgia
Semifinal Match Play Round
LSU 3, Oregon 2
Aine Donegan (LSU) d. Ting-Hsuan Huang (Oregon), 6&5
Kiara Romero (Oregon) d. Taylor Riley (LSU), 5&3
Rocio Tejedo (LSU) d. Tong An (Oregon), 19 holes
Josefin Widal (LSU) d. Karen Tsuru, 20 holes
Suvichaya Vinijchaitham (Oregon) d. Elsa Svensson, 2UP
Southern California 3, UCLA 2
Finals – Wednesday – Southern Cal vs. LSU