Duke, ranked fourth in the Golfweek/Sagarin Women’s Golf Rankings, defeated No. 2 USC by seven strokes to win the Northrup Grumman Regional Challenge at Palos Verdes Golf Club www.pvgc.com in Palos Verdes Estates.
The Blue Devils earned their fifth top-10 finish of the season but the first victory by posting a score of 291-273-283—847, 5-under-par, while the Trojans finished at 296-280-278—854, top-ranked Texas at 290-284-281—855, UCLA at 293-279-286—858 and Arizona State at 293-284-282—859.
“Seventeen birdies on the back nine,” said Coach Dan Brooks, who claimed his 137th victory at Duke. “Although we shot lower yesterday, our golf seemed just as good today. The flag locations were tougher today. Everyone contributed important rounds for the event. … I’m real proud of this team.”
Kent State was sixth at 289-294-285—868, followed by Stanford at 298-285-286—869, Wake Forest at 292-284-294—870, Auburn at 283-298-291—872 and Oregon at 291-296-289—876.
Pepperdine finished 12th 307-289-290—886.
Kaleigh Telfer of Auburn claimed the individual title with a score of 66-70-71—207, while Olivia Mehaffey of Arizona State and Ireland shot 70-68-70—208 to tie for second with Miranda Wang of Duke, who finished at 74-66-68—208, while Emilie Paltrinieri of UCLA was fourth at 73-69-67—209.
Amelia Garvey of USC posted a score of 69-73-68—210 to tie for fifth with Ana Belac of Duke, who wound up at 74-66-70—210, while Emily Wang of Stanford, who wound up at 72-70-69—211, Sophie Guo of Texas, who shot 72-69-70—211, Emilia Migliaccio of Wake Forest, who finished at 68-70-73—211, and Emma Spitz of UCLA, who came in at 70-66-75—211.
Momoka Kobori led Pepperdine in a tie for 16th at 71-73-70—214.
Rounding out the scoring for runner-up USC were Gabriela Ruffels in a tie for 12th at 75-71-67—213, Alyaa Abdulghany in tie for 21st at 76-69-72—217, Allisen Corpuz in a tie for 25th at 76-69-74—219, and Malia Nam in a tie for 29th at 78-71-71—220.
For complete results, visit http://results.golfstat.com//public/leaderboards/gsnav.cfm?pg=participants&tid=19443
