FAYETTEVILLE, Ark. — Duke stopped Arizona's repeat bid in the NCAA semifinals Wednesday, then took the Wildcats' place as the best team in women's college golf.
The Blue Devils' Miranda Wang won the 20th hole of the final match on the course to give Duke a 3-2 victory over Wake Forest for its seventh NCAA title.
The longest day at rain-soaked Blessings Golf Club concluded with three of the five matches going extra holes. Duke sophomore Jaravee Boonchant went 19 holes to beat Augusta National Women's Amateur champion Jennifer Kupcho. Siyun Liu of Wake Forest kept alive her team's hopes by winning in 20 holes.
Wang was 2 down with six holes to go against Letizia Bagnoli, tied the match with a birdie on the 15th and won on the second extra hole when Bagnoli pulled her second shot into the water.
Duke won its first national title since 2014. It now trails only Arizona State, which has eight NCAA titles.
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Earlier Wednesday, Duke ended Arizona's bid to win back-to-back national championships, and it came down to the final two matches.
An incredible season comes to an end for the defending National Champions. Congratulations to @DukeWGOLF, and best of luck in the National Championship Match. #BearDown ⛳️ pic.twitter.com/BD6p6EpMgx
— Arizona Women's Golf (@ArizonaWGolf) May 22, 2019
Duke freshman Gina Kim drilled a shot from a fairway bunker to 2 feet for birdie on the final hole that secured a 1-up victory over the defending champion Arizona Wildcats and sent her team into the final. Yu-Sang Hou of Arizona had lost three straight holes to Miranda Wang of Duke and was clinging to a 1-up lead on the par-3 17th when Hou holed a bunker shot to win.
The matches were tied at 2, and Bianca Pagdanganan had just tied the final match with Kim by making a 15-foot birdie putt on 15th hole. Kim answered with a birdie on the 16th to regain the lead, and the Duke freshman remained 1 up playing the 18th.
Kim hit into a bunker off the tee, while Pagdanganan blasted a drive down the middle to set up a short iron. Kim's shot from the sand landed on the edge of the green and rolled out to 2 feet. At that point, Pagdanganan likely would have had to hole her fairway shot, and she nearly did. The ball spun back next to Kim's ball.
"I'm very proud of these young women," UA coach Laura Ianello said in a news release. "It was a heartbreaking finish, but with some absolutely amazing golf. Duke closed us out with two fantastic shots on the last two holes. I'm so proud of Yu-Sang and Haley (Moore) finishing up their matches, and all the girls fought extremely hard. I'm amazingly proud of these young women.
"Making it to the semifinals is nothing to look down upon. I'm happy to have had a chance to defend our title."
The loss came one day after Moore nailed a 15-foot birdie putt on the 18th hole of the final quarterfinal match to give Arizona a 3-2 victory over USC. It was a familiar position for Moore, who made the winning putt when the Wildcats won last year's NCAA Championship.
