All-SEC Matchup in the Women’s Final; Men’s Championship Features the No. 2 (Vanderbilt) and No. 4 (Arizona State) teams in Final 2021-2022 Golfstat Ranking
In the Consolation matchup, Oregon vs. UCLA among the Women, and for the Men, Texas faces Pepperdine
ATLANTA, (Oct. 25, 2022) – The women from Texas A&M and Auburn, along with the Arizona State and Vanderbilt men each won their semifinal match Tuesday to punch their ticket into Wednesday’s championship matches at the eighth annual East Lake Cup. The women’s final will showcase an all-SEC matchup, while the men’s features two NCAA Semifinalists from a season ago, with Vanderbilt finishing No. 2 and Arizona State No. 4 in the final 2021-2022 Golfstat ranking.
SEMIFINAL RESULTS:
- WOMEN: (1) Texas A&M def. (4) UCLA, 3-2; (3) Auburn def. (2) Oregon 3-2.
- MEN: (1) Arizona State def. (4) Pepperdine, 3-2; (3) Vanderbilt def. (2) Texas, 3-1-1.
WOMEN’S SEMIFINALS
The later semifinal was a dramatic match that went to extra holes to decide the clinching point. Auburn’s Casey Weidenfeld, a redshirt freshman, battled back against Oregon junior Hsin-Yu Lu to claim a 1-up victory in 19 holes and send the Tigers to the championship match. The Tigers and Ducks split the first two points of the day. Auburn senior Megan Schofill claimed a 6&5 win over senior Brittany Shin. Oregon then evened things with a 6&4 victory from senior Briana Chacon against freshman Rachel Gourley. Junior Ashleigh Park tallied the next Oregon point, with a 3&2 win over junior Elina Sinz. Auburn evened the match thanks to junior Anna Foster’s 4&2 win over senior Ching-Tzu Chen, which set the stage for Weidenfeld’s clinching point.
“We’ve got some young kids that joined our team this year, and I just let them know what our culture’s like,” Auburn head coach Melissa Luellen said. “We had some match play and saw some, well, maybe a little attitude that I wasn’t really pleased with. It was the opportunity to remind them about our culture—that I don’t care what you shoot, we always fight. You might be shooting 85 and you’re on the last hole and something clicks, and it can carry over to the next day or the next tournament. I said, ‘We never stop fighting,’ and just kind of made that really clear. I’m really proud of them.”
In the early semifinal, UCLA sophomore Caroline Canales earned the first point of the day with a 2&1 win over Texas A&M sophomore Adela Cernousek. The Aggies responded with back-to-back points, starting with a 4&2 victory from junior Zoe Slaughter over redshirt sophomore Alessia Nobilio. The Aggies then claimed the third point, as Monday’s Medalist, senior Blanca Fernández García-Poggio, won 5&4 over UCLA senior Annabel Wilson. Bruins sophomore Zoe Antoinette Campos evened things with a 3&2 victory over Texas A&M senior Jennie Park, leading to a deciding final match featuring UCLA senior Emilie Paltrinieri and Texas A&M’s Hailee Cooper. A graduate student, Cooper claimed the victory, 1-up, for the Aggies, with a chip-in eagle on the par-5 18th hole.
“I think we fought through a bad day,” Texas A&M head coach Gerrod Chadwell said. “I don’t think we had our best just in the matches that I was around. But we had some big wins early which was nice, but we’ll have another tough match tomorrow.”
MEN’S SEMIFINALS
Arizona State freshman Luke Potter picked up a point in the opening match with a 4&3 win over Pepperdine sophomore Ian Maspat. Last year’s East Lake Cup Co-Medalist Preston Summerhays, a sophomore for ASU, added a second points for the Sun Devils with a 1-up victory against grad student Sam Choi. The Waves rode back into the match with back-to-back points beginning with grad student Derek Hitchner’s 1-up win over senior Ryggs Johnston, followed by a 2&1 victory from senior William Mouw against freshman Michael Mjaaseth. In the anchor match, Sun Devils sophomore Josele Ballester punched ASU’s ticket to the championship match with a 3&2 win against Pepperdine grad student Luke Gifford.
“I think we could kind of put anybody against anybody and feel like they could beat them,” Arizona State head coach Matt Thurmond said. “We have five really, really good players. I think we’re a hard match-up, but so is Vanderbilt. They have five great players as well. (We’re) a competitive group; they’re really steady. I think that’s probably the biggest thing is they’re just kind of quietly steady and tough.”
The later semifinal featured a rematch of the NCAA National Semifinals when defending National Champion Texas ousted Vanderbilt. The Commodores claimed the rematch in emphatic fashion.
Texas freshman Christiaan Maas won the only point for the Longhorns with a 4&2 win over 5th-year Vanderbilt senior Reid Davenport. The first point for Vanderbilt came with a 5&4 victory by senior Matthew Riedel over Texas sophomore Alejandro Gonzalez. The Commodores proceeded to win the next two matches, with senior William Moll and junior Cole Sherwood both claiming 5&4 victories to propel Vanderbilt to Wednesday’s championship.
“We wanted to come out and just play better golf,” Vanderbilt head coach Scott Limbaugh said. “It’s match play, so the game changes a little bit, but we just weren’t very clean yesterday. So just wanted to have a little bit more ‘get up and go’ to what we’re trying to do.”
*Transcripts of post-round interviews with players and coaches at the 2022 East Lake Cup are available here.
*Approved images of the 2022 East Lake Cup Semi-Final matches are available via this Dropbox link.
WEDNESDAY’S CHAMPIONSHIP AND CONSOLATION MATCHES:
Women’s Championship Match: Texas A&M (1) vs. Auburn (3)
Men’s Championship Match: Arizona State (1) vs. Vanderbilt (3)
Women’s Consolation Match: Oregon (2) vs. UCLA (4)
Men’s Consolation Match: Texas (2) vs. Pepperdine (4)
GOLF Channel’s live coverage of Wednesday Finals of team match play will air from 3-6 p.m. ET. College Central Pre-Game (2:30-3 p.m. ET) will preview each championship match and provide updates on matches already in progress.
SEMIFINAL RESULTS:
Women’s Division
(1) Texas A&M def. (4) UCLA, 3-2
(3) Auburn def. (2) Oregon, 3-2
Texas A&M (1) vs. UCLA (4)
Adela Cernousek Caroline Canales (2&1)
Zoe Slaughter (4&2) Alessia Nobilio
Blanca Fernández García-Poggio (5&4) Annabel Wilson
Hailee Cooper (1up) Emilie Paltrinieri
Jennie Park Zoe Antoinette Campos (3&2)
Oregon (2) vs. Auburn (3)
Brittany Shin Megan Schofill (6&5)
Briana Chacon (6&4) Rachel Gourley
Ashleigh Park (3&2) Elina Sinz
Ching-Tzu Chen Anna Foster (4&2)
Hsin-Yu Lu Casey Weidenfeld (1up 19 holes)
Men’s Division
(1) Arizona State def. (4) Pepperdine, 3-2
(3) Vanderbilt def. (2), Texas, 3-1-1
Arizona State (1) vs. Pepperdine (4)
Luke Potter (4&3) Ian Maspat
Preston Summerhays (1up) Sam Choi
Ryggs Johnston Derek Hitchner (1up)
Michael Mjaaseth William Mouw (2&1)
Josele Ballester (3&2) Luke Gifford
Texas (2) vs. Vanderbilt (3)
Christiaan Maas (4&2) Reid Davenport
Alejandro Gonzalez Matthew Riedel (5&4)
Mason Nome William Moll (5&4)
Keaton Vo Cole Sherwood (5&4)
Travis Vick (TIE) Gordon Sargent
The East Lake Cup is being contested over three days, following the format from the final three days of the NCAA men’s and women’s golf national championships. Tuesday and Wednesday, Oct. 25-26, two match-play tournaments are held simultaneously for the men’s and women’s divisions, with the semifinals taking place on Tuesday and the finals and consolation matches on Wednesday.
Teams for the East Lake Cup are competing on the championship golf course at East Lake Golf Club, home of the TOUR Championship, the season-ending event of the PGA TOUR’s FedExCup Playoffs. The East Lake Cup benefits the East Lake Foundation, a charitable organization dedicated to helping families build better lives and children reach their highest potential through its holistic approach to community revitalization incorporating mixed-income housing, cradle-to-college education and community wellness. The East Lake Cup is one of the largest contributors to the East Lake Foundation, having raised more than $1.5 million for the East Lake Foundation since the tournament’s inception in 2015. ZipRecuriter, World Wide Technology, Full Swing, and Bridgestone Golf are official partners of the East Lake Cup.
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Following its announcement in 2013 as the exclusive television provider of the NCAA Golf Championships, GOLF Channel has provided live coverage of the men’s NCAA Championships since 2014 and the women’s NCAA Championships since 2015, which are hosted at the same venue in consecutive weeks at Grayhawk Golf Club in Scottsdale, Arizona. GOLF Channel also annually televises the three-day East Lake Cup at historic East Lake Golf Club in Atlanta, Ga.; the Western Intercollegiate Presented by Topgolf, one of the longest-running college tournaments in the U.S. taking place at Pasatiempo Golf Club in Santa Cruz, Calif.; the Darius Rucker Intercollegiate Presented by PXG at Long Cove Club in Hilton Head, S.C.; the Blessings Collegiate Invitational in Fayetteville, Ark; the Jackson T. Stephens Cup; and the Southwestern Invitational Presented by Topgolf at North Ranch Country Club in Westlake Village, Calif.
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