Duke ended its fall season with a flourish Tuesday, winning the Hooters Match Play Championship in Howey-in-the-Hills, Fla. The victory gave the Blue Devils a perfect 5-0 fall record for the second consecutive year.
“It’s definitely a great feeling to be the reigning champions for the winter,” head coach Dan Brooks said. “It’s great to have a fall where we succeeded throughout.”
This year’s undefeated autumn was somewhat more surprising than last year’s. Entering 2003, Duke was ranked first nationally and had two players, Virada Nirapathpongporn and Liz Janangelo, ranked in the top three individually.
Although Janangelo returned as the reigning National Player of the Year, the Blue Devils did not enter the season as the top-ranked team for the first time in seven years. At the end of the year’s first tournament, however, the Blue Devils regained the No. 1 ranking and have held it ever since.
Duke showed why it deserved such a designation Tuesday. In the battle of the Devils, the Blue Devils handily beat the third-seeded Arizona State Sun Devils 4-1. Every Duke player to tee off beat her opponent by at least two holes.
Duke’s only loss of the day was a forfeit. Niloufar Aazam-Zanganeh has been suffering from knee pain as a result of her hip surgery. When the discomfort became overwhelming Tuesday morning, Brooks decided to remove her from the lineup.
“The team’s response was tremendous,” Brooks said. “I couldn’t be prouder of the team. We only had four players and all four won. The whole thing showed a lot of character.”
Freshman Jennifer Pandolfi, whose play has improved over the course of this season, capped off her fall with her best performance. Pandolfi was the only Blue Devil to win all four of her matches and she did so convincingly, by an average of almost four holes per match. Her effort Tuesday was especially impressive because she recovered from a double-bogey on the first hole, as well as a two-hole deficit, to win her match 3-and-2.
“Pandolfi has a great personality for match play,” Brooks said. “She plays her golf and doesn’t get too worked up by the distractions. In match play, there are a lot of factors you can’t control, and she doesn’t get caught up in those things.”
Janangelo, who struggled in the second round, won her second straight match easily. The junior led by as many as six before finishing with a 4-and-3 victory.
“I feel like I didn’t play my best,” Janangelo said. “But I got up-and-down and I made putts. In match play, the final result is all that matters.”
Coming off a tough 5-and-4 third-round loss to Arizona, Anna Grzebien rebounded solidly in the final round. She did not trail once during the round, finishing off her opponent 4-and-3.
“Anna is really tough,” Brooks said. “She has a lot of fire inside. She came back, and I wasn’t surprised.”
After losing her first match of the tournament, sophomore Brittany Lang won her final three. The outcome of the tournament had already been decided when Lang reached the 17th tee all-square with her opponent. Lang’s pride and competitive nature, however, took over as she won the final two holes to complete the virtual sweep.
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