BATON ROUGE – LSU sophomore golfer Ryleigh Knaub wrapped up her play in the United States Women’s Amateur Saturday morning at The Honors Course at Ooltewah, Tennessee.
Knaub, in the rain delayed round of 16 match, made a strong rally to get the match back even before falling to Gabriella Nicastro of Huntsville, Alabama, 2&1.
When a rain and storm delay stopped play on Friday, Knaub was 3Down through seven holes. But the Debary, Florida native responded once play resumed on Saturday with pars on the par 3 eighth and the par 4 ninth hole that proved to be hole winners and Knaub was just 1Down heading to the final nine holes.
Nicastro pushed the match back to two holes with a winning par on the 12th hole, but Knaub made one final push on the 14th and 15th holes, with a birdie two on the 14th and a birdie three on the 15th to square the match.
Nicastro, however, had was able to get birdies on the 16th and 17th to close out the match.
Knaub, who won a spot in one of the many qualifiers around the country earlier in the summer, was part of a field of 156 which teed off in the event on Tuesday. After 36 holes, she qualified for match play by finishing in the top 64, shooting 2-under 70 in the second round to cement her spot. She then won two matches in the round of 64 and 32 to advance to the round of 16 and officially will be credited with a T9 finish.
Now she will soon join her LSU teammates back in Baton Rouge to prepare for the early September start of the 2026-27 women’s golf wraparound season.