ATLANTA, Ga. – The defending national champion Stanford women’s golf team will need to rally Tuesday to reach the finals of the inaugural East Lake Cup at rainy East Lake Golf Club.
When its semifinal match against top-ranked Duke was suspended due to darkness on Monday, the Cardinal lost one match, trailed in three and led in one.
“We’re not playing poorly, but we’re also playing one of the hottest teams in the fall,” said Anne Walker, the Margot and Mitch Milias Director of Women’s Golf. “If we played 10 times, we’d probably both win five.
Each program has two vic"tories this fall.
Stanford fell behind early in the elite four-team event featuring men’s and women’s semifinalists from the 2015 NCAA Championship. The start of play was delayed due to heavy overnight rain, but it didn’t bother the Blue Devils, who jumped out to early leads in all but one match.
Sophomore Shannon Aubert hung tough early against Gurbani Singh of Duke, but lost the sixth, seventh and eighth holes and fell, 3 and 2. Senior All-American Lauren Kim is battling sophomore Leona Maguire, the No. 1-ranked player in the nation and the 2014-15 National Player of the Year. Through 14 holes, Kim is 2-down.
Senior All-American Mariah Stackhouse, who grew up in Riverdale, Ga. and was cheered on by family and friends, owns a 2-up advantage after 12 holes against highly-touted freshman Virginia Elena Carter. Stackhouse won the eighth hole and made the turn 1-up, then captured the 10th hole to increase her lead to 2-up. They halved the 11th and 12th holes.
“Mariah looks comfortable,” Walker said.
In the fourth match, junior Casey Danielson is 2-down after 11 holes to Celine Boutier, the 2013-14 National Player of the Year. Danielson dropped the eighth, ninth and 10th holes, then won the 11th to close the deficit.
In the final match, junior Quirine Eijkenboom is 2-down through 10 holes against Sandy Choi. Eijkenboom started slowly, losing the first two holes and was 4-down after seven. But she fought back to win the eighth and 10th holes.
“We’ve got fewer holes to work with, but we’re not done with this,” said Walker.
The final and consolation matches will be carried live Tuesday on the Golf Channel starting at 11 a.m. PT.
In the men’s division, Georgia leads in three matches, trails in one and another is all square against LSU. In the other semifinal, Illinois leads in four matches and one is all square against USC.
