Mariah Stackhouse of Stanford earned a spot in the Kia Classic on the LPGA Tour by claiming a two-stroke victory over Grace Na of Pepperdine in the UC Irvine Invitational at Santa Ana Country Club.
Stackhouse, a sophomore from Riverdale, Ga., led the Cardinal to its third victory of the season by 13 strokes over Texas A&M.
“I’m very proud of the players and the poise they showed throughout this event,” said Anne Walker, Stanford’s Director of Women’s Golf. “It’s always hard to win a tournament when you are leading by 10 strokes going into the final round because you tend to protect the lead, yet today we put in the work to be great over every shot. I couldn’t be happier with our effort.”
Stanford, ranked fifth in the nation by Golfweek, claimed its second straight victory by posting an even par score of 289-289-286–864, while Texas A&M came in a 297-291-289–877.
Pepperdine was third at 298-294-287–879, followed by Gonzaga at 303-295-293–891, Long Beach State at 306-298-290–894 and UC Davis at 308-299-292–899.
Host UC Irvine was eighth at 306-310-306–922, San Francisco finished 10th at 309-309-310–928 and UC Riverside came in 13th at 310-317-314–941.
Stackhouse, No. 5 in Golfweek’s individual rankings, captured the fourth victory of her career with a score of 70-69-73–212, 4-under-par, while Na, a sophomore from Alameda, finished at 74-69-71–214, and Katerina Ruzickova of Texas was third at 73-70-72–215.
Stackhouse will play in the Kia Classic on March 27-30 at Aviara Golf Club in Carlsbad.
Betty Chen of UC Davis shot 75-72-69–216 and tied for fourth with Casey Danielson of Stanford, who finished at 69-78-69–216, and her Cardinal teammate, Lauren Kim, who wound up at 74-71-71–216.
Savannah Vilaubi UC Riverside was seventh at 71-71-75–217, and Liv Cheng of Pepperdine totaled 72-73-73–218 to tie for eighth with Raychelle Santos of Gonzaga, who came in at 74-72-72–218.
Kassidy Teare of Long Beach State rounded out the top 10 at 72-78-69–219.
