After leading the Cardinal to an NCAA championship last season, Mariah Stackhouse again displayed the trademark grit that put the Cardinal over the top 12 months ago.
After a posting a 7-over 79 in the opening round of this year’s NCAA championships at Eugene Country Club — her highest total in any major tournament this year — Stackhouse rebounded to lead the Cardinal in scoring in the subsequent two rounds, coming in with a 3-under 69 on Saturday and a 2-under 70 in Sunday’s third round.
Through these first three rounds of the championship, the Cardinal have kept their dreams of repeating alive, coming in at fifth place following Sunday’s elimination leg, after which the top 15 of the 24 teams in the field advance to play a fourth round on Monday.
Nevertheless, the Cardinal remain far from secure in their current position, as only the top eight teams advance to the match play portion of the competition following the fourth round. Stanford (+4) currently maintains a two-stroke lead over sixth place Oregon and a five-shot cushion over eighth-place teams Virginia and Arizona. USC (-4) leads the field with a two-stroke advantage over the tournament’s day one leader, UCLA, and Duke, who roared into contention with an -8 team aggregate score of 280 on Sunday.
Following her round of 70, which featured a bogey-free back-nine total of 32, Stackhouse moved into a tie for 27th overall with teammate sophomore Shannon Aubert (74, 72, 72). Junior Casey Danielson (71, 70, 74) remains the team’s overall leader after shooting a round of 2-over to end the day in a tie for 12th.
Senior Lauren Kim (74, 72, 74) finished Sunday’s round in a tie for 45th after posting one birdie and three bogeys, while freshman Sierra Kersten (76, 76, 75) moved into a tie for 100th to round out the scoring for the Cardinal. Duke’s Virginia Elena Carta (-13) leads all competitors.
As a team, Stanford has been red-hot on the par-threes at Eugene, leading the field with a scoring average of 2.93 and a -4 score overall on those holes. However, the Cardinal have struggled to take advantage of the par-fives, currently maintaining a team average of 5.02 and +1 overall, the 18th-best total in the field and 16 shots behind the tournament’s par-five leader, Alabama.
Stanford will return to action in the final round of stroke play on Monday and will look to hold on to its top-eight position to qualify for the match-play stage once again.
Contact Vihan Lakshman at vihan ‘at’ stanford.edu.