California Women's Am: Akabane, Scavo advance to the final

CARMEL, CA (July 27, 2018) - It’ll be No.1 seed Ty Akabane vs. No. 14 Kathleen Scavo in the final of this year’s annual California Women’s Amateur Championship. Akabane, a senior at San Ramon Valley High, earned her ticket to the 18-hole finale via a 19-hole quarterfinals victory over Sabrina Iqbal and a 2 and 1 win semifinals win over Maria Davis on Friday at par-72 Quail Lodge Resort. In her match against Iqbal, Akabane was 2-down through 14 holes, and for the second day in a row looked like she was on her way home. Instead, she again rallied, this time birdying the 15th to cut the gap to 1-up, and then tying the match with another birdie on 18. On the 19th hole (par-5 1st), Akabane carded an eagle to best Iqbal’s birdie. Iqbal won the championship in 2016. In the afternoon semis, Akabane took a 2-up lead with wins on the 4th and 5th holes and never looked back. Davis, who plays at Long Beach State, got it back to 1-up with a par win on the 14th, but Akabane re-upped the lead to two holes with a par win of her own on the 16th. Scavo, a senior at the University of Oregon and a former two-time winner of the California Junior Girls’ State Championship, eked out a 20th hole win over Alice Duan in the quarterfinals before knocking out Natasha Oon in the semis, 2 and 1. In the morning match against Duan, no one ever held more than a 1-up lead. Scavo won the par-3 17th to go 1-up, but Duan rebounded with a birdie win on the 18th to knot things up. After halving the 19th hole, Scavo won on the 20th when Duan carded a double-bogey. Against Oon, who’ll begin playing at San Jose State this fall, Scavo went 3-under through the first eight holes to build a commanding 4-up lead. Oon tried to make things interesting, winning holes No.15 and No.16 late to cut the gap to two holes, but the two halved the 17th with pars. Saturday’s 18-hole final will tee off at 7:30 a.m.