Women’s Western Am: Thibault, Lucena will play for the title

After six rounds of golf over four days, the Women’s Western Championship has its championship match set. Beginning the day with eight, Brigitte Thibault and Jackie Lucena fought hard to work their way into Saturday’s championship match at Prestwick Country Club in Frankfort, Ill. UC Davis’ Lucena clawed her way through the quarters and semis with an extended 20 hole match against 15-seed Taylor Kehoe. Squaring off against Winthrop’s Chelsea Dantonio, Lucena pounced early going 5 up through nine before finishing the match at No. 12 for a 7&6 win. A Fresno State senior, Thibault bested Oklahoma’s Ellen Secor 6&4 to advance and face Middle Tennessee State’s Sophie Burks. Burks did not go down easy as Thibault needed 21 holes to secure her spot in the championship match. Thibault, the 2019 Mountain West Conference champion, was a quarterfinalist in the Women's Western two years ago and played in the inaugural Augusta National Women’s Amateur in 2019. Saturday’s 36-hole championship match will begin at 7:30 am local time.