Ying Luo, Julianne Alvarez and Wenyung Keh each win for Huskies, who face UCLA in Tuesday’s semifinals.
EUGENE, Ore. — Washington women’s golf team defeated Virginia 3-1-1 in match play Tuesday morning, advancing to the semifinals of the NCAA Championships later in the day against UCLA.
Julianne Alvarez, Ying Luo and Wenyung Keh each won their matches for the No. 4 seeded Huskies over No. 5 Virginia at the Eugene Country Club.
Top-seeded UCLA beat No. 8 Oregon 4-0-1 Tuesday. The Washington-UCLA winner will face Stanford or Duke in Wednesday’s match-play final with an NCAA championship at stake. Stanford defeated South Carolina 3-2, and Duke beat USC 4-1 in Tuesday’s other matchplay quarterfinals, advancing to the semis.
On Monday, the Huskies fired a 2-under 286 and finished with an even-par 1,152. Pac-12 teams grabbed the top four seeds with UCLA at 8-under 1,144, Stanford at 5-under 1,147 and USC at 2-under 1,150.
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Ying Luo topped the Huskies again, shooting a 3-under 69 on the 6,331-yard, par-72 layout. She finished tied for 11th in the individual race at 1-under 287. Duke’s Virginia Elena Carta won the individual title by eight strokes at 16-under 272.
“I’m so excited for Ying,” said UW coach Mary Lou Mulflur. “She’s just a great story, you know, she was a walk-on, came from China with just two suitcases and no clubs, no family or anything, and it’s just unbelievable to see somebody that determined and that passionate about being good in whatever she does.”
For the Huskies, Keh (73) finished tied 20th at 1-over 289 and Charlotte Thomas (70) tied for 32nd at 3-over 291 after two eagles.
“I’ve never seen someone make two eagles in six holes,” Mulflur said. “She didn’t hit the ball that great today and she had some bogeys, but she found a way to get a decent score. Not the conventional way, but we’ll take it.”
BASEBALL
• The regular season ended for Gonzaga (33-17) when host UC Santa Barbara (36-16-1) won 6-5 on a walkoff wild pitch to cap a three-run rally in the ninth. The Bulldogs now head to the West Coast Conference tournament in Stockton, Calif., as the No. 3 seed. Gonzaga’s Eli Morgan (10-1) was named the WCC pitcher of the week for his shutout at San Diego.
HONORS
• Washington third baseman Chris Baker was named the Pac-12 player of the week after going 10 for 17 with a homer and four RBI. The Huskies’ Troy Rallings (4-1, 0.89 ERA in 28 relief appearances) was named a semifinalist for the award as the nation’s top player.
• Seattle Pacific’s Karl Lerum has been named the West Region women’s track coach of the year.
• Nick Meservey of Seattle University was the Western Athletic Conference pitcher of the week after nine strikeouts and allowed two hits in eight scoreless innings.