CARLSBAD, California – The LSU women’s golf team showed no signs of surrendering one of the top positions in the final round of stroke play qualifying in the 2024 NCAA D1 Women’s Golf Championship at OMNI La Costa Resort and Spa North Course.
In fact, the Tigers shot the third best round of the afternoon on Monday and moved up two spots to a tie for first with Stanford at the top of the leaderboard.
LSU posted a 3-over 291 for a four-round total of 2-over par and school record 72-hole total of 1,154 (289-286-288-291). The previous record was set last year in Scottsdale when LSU shot 1,167 in finishing T14. LSU’s 286 in the second round was also a school record in an NCAA Championship.
Stanford and LSU tied for the top spot at 1,154. Stanford shot three consecutive rounds of 285 before shooting a 299 on Monday.
Stanford will have the No. 1 seed based on non-counting cumulative score for the four rounds and will face No. 8 seed Auburn. LSU is the No. 2 seed and will face seventh seeded Oregon. Oregon posted 1,171 for the four rounds and a 7-over round on Monday to finish tied for sixth with UCLA with the Bruins getting the sixth spot in the tiebreaker.
“It feels pretty awesome,” said Coach Garrett Runion immediately after the round. “We’ve been knocking at the door the last few years. I told everybody that I don’t want a good team; I want a good program. To be the program, you need to be at the top a lot. We missed out on some close calls these last few years, so it feels amazing to crack the top 8 and reach match play.”
In the pairings draw, LSU deferred to Oregon for the first pick and the Tigers lineup for the match will be Carla Tejedo off in the first match, following by Taylor Riley, Latanna Stone, Ingrid Lindblad and Aine Donegan. The match will be the first of the day beginning at 6:50 a.m. PDT (8:50 a.m. Baton Rouge time) off the first tee.
The Golf Channel will televise portions of the both the quarterfinals and the semifinals later in the afternoon with quarterfinal coverage beginning at 10 a.m. PDT (Noon Baton Rouge time). Semifinal coverage will begin at 3 p.m. PDT (5 p.m. Baton Rouge time).
Also importantly for LSU for the first time in the NCAA Championship and for the third time this year the Tigers had three in the top 10 in the individual competition.
Aine Donegan, who posted a strong 5-under par round of 67 in the second round on Saturday, finished in a tied for fourth in the standings after a third straight under par round of 71. Donegan, from Ireland, posted a 72-hole total of 283, 5-under par with rounds of 74-67-71-71.
Carla Tejedo, who opened with three under par rounds of 71-71-70 finished with a 3-over 75 on Monday and posted a 72-hole score of 1-under par 287. It was her third top 21 finish in the NCAA Tournament in the last four years.
Latanna Stone had her best NCAA Championships finish with a T10 at even par 288 after a final round of 1-under 71. Stone finished with rounds of 71-73-73-71.
“I can say I’m not surprised,” Coach Runion discussed his players and their performance in the championship. “We have a pretty deep and consistent team. The things that Ingrid’s (Lindblad) been able to do over her career has kind of overshadowed some of our players. Aine Donegan has played well and been a key swing piece for us. Taylor Riley, being from Southern California, has stepped up big for us a few rounds and it was good to see. It was a total team effort. To win this thing, you’re going to need everybody on the team, not just one person.”
Donegan on her round started with a bogey on the par 4 first hole and then followed with two birdies on the par 4 fifth and the par 5 10th hole.
Stone in her 1-under round had three birdies on her final round 71 card.
Lindblad posted a final round of 2-over 74 and was the victim of some extremely bad luck on the tricky par 4 15th hole that cost her probably at least one shot when her middle of the fairway drive laned in a divot then her approach shot plugged in a bunker.
Taylor Riley posted a 4-over par 76 for LSU in the final round.
For Tejedo, Stone and Lindblad, it was their final stroke play round in college as they become just the fourth, fifth and sixth LSU players in history to appear in four NCAA Championships, all as team qualifiers.
The individual winner of the NCAA Championship was Adela Cernousek of Texas A&M at 12-under par who followed up three straight rounds of 68 with an even par 72 in the final round for a four-round total of 276. Lottie Woad of Florida State finished second at 9-under 279 after a round of 69 and Paula Martin Sampedro was third at 6-under 282.
Scores were not quite as high as they were in the third round on Sunday, but the 15-teams averaged just over 75 (75.31) for the 84 players.
The other quarterfinal matches will see Texas A&M, the third seed, facing UCLA and Southern California facing off against Clemson.
The match play portion of the event has been conducted since 2015. The quarterfinal and semifinal matches will be held on Tuesday and on Wednesday the national champion will be crowned.
Live scoring is available on the Golfstat.com app for the match play and updates during the match on “X” @LSUwomensgolf and @LSUKent.
LSU SCORES
T4 Aine Donegan — 73-67-71-71 – 283 -5
9 Carla Tejedo – 71-71-70-75 – 287 -1
T10 Latanna Stone – 71-73-73-71 – 288 E
T62 Taylor Riley – 77-75-74-76 – 302 +14
T65 Ingrid Lindblad – 73-81-75-74 – 303 +13
Quarterfinal Pairings Tuesday, Hole 1
LSU vs. Oregon
Carla Tejedo v. Ching-Tzu Chen, 6:50 a.m.
Taylor Riley v. Minori Nagano, 7 a.m.
Latanna Stone v. Ting-Hsuan Huang, 7:10 a.m.
Ingrid Lindblad v. Karen Tsuru, 7:20 a.m.
Aine Donegan v. Kiara Romero, 7:30 a.m.
Semifinals Tuesday afternoon
LSU-Oregon winner vs. Texas A&M-UCLA winner
Stanford-Auburn winner vs. Southern Cal-Clemson winner
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