Stanford women’s golf denied second straight NCAA championship

Stanford women’s golf arrived in Carlsbad, Calif. poised to make history on May 21 but left one point short, falling 3-2 to Northwestern in the NCAA Division I championship match. Northwestern’s Dianna Lee drained a short par putt on the 18th green to edge freshman Andrea Revuelta and deny the Cardinal what would have been the tournament’s first repeat title since Duke in 2006.

Stanford, the top overall seed, had dominated stroke play by a record 27 shots, then ousted Florida State in a tense semifinal that ended when junior Megha Ganne rolled in a lengthy birdie on the second playoff hole against top-ranked amateur Lottie Woad. 

But in match play’s winner-take-all format, Northwestern — seeded 11th after stroke play — played with nothing to lose. The momentum in the final match swung back and forth between the two teams before Lee’s closing par delivered the Wildcats’ first women’s golf championship in their program history and snapped Stanford’s quest for back-to-back banners. 

Despite the sting, the Stanford squad will end this season with plenty of accolades. All five Cardinal starters earned Women’s Golf Coaches Association All-America status — the second straight year Stanford placed its entire lineup on the list. Ganne, sophomore Paula Martín Sampedro, freshman Meja Örtengren and Revuelta were named to the first team, while junior Kelly Xu repeated as a second-team pick. The four first-team selections were the most of any program. 

Örtengren’s breakout campaign also earned her national rookie acclaim. The Swedish freshman was voted the WGCA Division I Freshman of the Year after posting a 70.11 scoring average, winning the individual title at the San Diego State Classic in February, and tallying nine top-10 finishes in her first season at Stanford. The future remains bright for a program that will hope to bring back most of a lineup that owns two of the last four national trophies.

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