“It’s been really good so far,” USC head coach Justin Silverstein said on the fall season, his first as head coach at Troy. “We have a lot of depth and a good group. All of our wins are team wins and everyone plays their part. As a staff, that’s what we want to see.”
“I knew on 16 before my chip it was going to come down to my match,” Ruffels said. “I really wanted it for my team and I’m happy we were able to get it done.”
Match play is a format where you can’t hide a week spot in your lineup, and USC – on Wednesday, at least – proved it doesn’t have any of those.
Stanford, a team that is generally very strong in match play, earned its two points decisively. Albane Valenzuela, the individual medalist at the beginning of the week, defeated Jennifer Chang, 6 and 4. Mika Liu took down Amelia Garvey, 4 and 3.
In front of the title match, Arizona and Alabama – the two teams that faced off in the NCAA final last spring – battled for a consolation victory. Alabama suffered early week without top players Lauren Stephenson and Kristen Gillman, both of whom are away at LPGA Q-Series. But on Wednesday, the Crimson Tide took down Alabama, 3-2.
Haley Moore and Yu-Sang Hou put the first two points on the board for Arizona, but the next three went to Alabama. The Tide’s Kenzie Wright took a massive 8-and-6 victory over Arizona senior Bianca Pagdanganan, who was crucial in Arizona’s success last season at NCAAs.
Information from USC Athletics used in this report