Stanford and Zhang finish off title runs at Nanea Pac-12 Preview
Courtesy of Stanford Athletics
If the Nanea Pac-12 Preview was to serve as an indicator of how things could shake out this spring, three days on the island of Kona only underscored the obvious: Stanford remains the class of one of the strongest conference's in the nation.
The top-ranked Cardinal strung together three sub-par rounds for an 18-under score of 858, which was good for a 10-stroke win over Oregon, the team Stanford defeated in last year's NCAA title match at Grayhawk. Stanford began the final round with a nine-stroke lead over the Ducks and didn't falter, turning in a 4-under 288 over the final 18 holes to secure its third full-field stroke play win of the season.
If it's any consolation to Oregon, the Ducks played Stanford to within a stroke over the last two rounds after spotting the Cardinal a nine-stroke lead on Monday.
Stanford's Rose Zhang won her third individual title of the fall and seventh of her career with an 11-under score of 208 (67-70-71), which left her three shots clear of Ashleigh Park of Oregon, who stayed on the world's top-ranked female amateur's heels all day long before settling for a 1-under 72 to Zhang's 71.
Gile Bite Starkute of Arizona finished four back at 7-under 215.
USC's Amari Avery birdied six of her final eight holes and eight of her final 13 for a season-best 6-under 67, shooting 13 spots up the leaderboard into a tie for seventh at 4-under 215. The Trojans finished sixth overall at 8-over 884 (296-297-291).
The Cardinal was the only school with three golfers under par and in the top-10.
Freshman Megha Ganne tied for seventh at 4-under for her second top-10 of the fall while senior Brooke Seay tied for 10th at 3-under marking her best finish of the season. Junior Sadie Englemann finished tied for 11th at even-par.
With its match play wins at The Stephens Cup and in the Big Match against rival Cal along with its three-stroke play victories, the Cardinal ran the table for the second consecutive fall, solidifying its top spot in the rankings heading into the break.
If there's a challenge for Stanford in the spring, it's finding another hot hand in the rare occurrence Zhang isn't at the top of her game. Stanford has won its three-stroke play events by a combined 33 shots while Zhang is 37-under in those events.
The only time this fall Zhang was slightly off her game was at the Stephens Cup, where she tied for 12th at 2-under. Stanford finished second to Wake Forest by six shots in the 54-hole stroke play portion of the event used to determine the seedings for match play.
However, the Cardinal routed the Demon Deacons, 4-1 in the championship match with Zhang defeating, Emilia Migliaccio, 3 and 2.
ABOUT THE Pac-12 Women's Preview
The Pac-12 members get together to hold a
conference
championship preview
as the fall season nears its conclusion.
Team (best four scores out of five players) and
individual competitions.
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