Women’s golf found itself in an unusual position Sunday—the top-ranked Blue Devils trailed their opponent in the Hooters Collegiate Match Play Championship.
After sailing past 16th-seeded UNLV Sunday, winning four matches to one, top-seeded Duke struggled early in the second round against eighth-seeded Furman before play was suspended because of darkness.
“We weren’t playing as sharp as we can,” head coach Dan Brooks said. “We ran into some people playing some pretty good golf.”
Through 11 holes in the second round, Furman leads the defending-champion Blue Devils three matches to two. In the tightest contest of the round, Niloufar Aazam-Zanganeh trails her opponent by one hole.
Aazam-Zanganeh and her opponent, Theresa Paik, exchanged the lead twice in the first four holes before Paik won three of four holes to go up by two. Aazam-Zanganeh birdied the 15th hole to narrow the margin to one, two holes before darkness halted play.
Duke’s Brittany Lang and Jennifer Pandolfi were each leading by a narrow margin when play was suspended. Lang, who has not trailed in her match, leads her opponent by two holes. Pandolfi lost her first hole of the day but recovered quickly, winning two of the next three holes. She finished the day up one hole.
“We’re going to have to go out ready to play Monday,” Brooks said. “We can’t wait too long to make a move, but we’ve got enough holes left to get the job done.”
Pandolfi’s play was one of the high points for the Blue Devils. After starting the season slowly, Pandolfi has been one of the team’s most consistent players of late. She carded a 69 in the final round of the ACC/SEC Challenge, Duke’s most recent tournament, and followed it up with a commanding 5-and-4 victory in Sunday’s first round.
“I’m really excited about Pandolfi,” Brooks said. “She has had a really good fall, coming through in some really important times and playing some really solid golf in this tournament.”
Anna Grzebien also performed well for the Blue Devils against UNLV, beating her opponent 4 and 3. She struggled early in her match and was down one hole after seven, but she came back to win six of the next eight holes to put her opponent away.
Aazam-Zanganeh and Liz Janangelo also did not encounter much trouble in the morning round against the Rebels, as neither trailed on the way to 2-and-1 victories. Both led by as many as three holes at some point during the round.
Lang was the only Blue Devil to come up short in the first round. She played the front nine well, and was up two holes at the turn. But the fifth hole was her final triumph, and she lost four of her eight final holes en route to a 2-and-1 loss.
The second round will conclude Monday with an 8 a.m. tee time. If Duke rebounds to beat Furman, the team will go up against the winner of the matchup between fourth-seeded Washington and 12th-seeded Arizona following the completion of the second round. The final round of the 16-team tournament will take place Tuesday.
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