Going head-to-head with the defending national champions one day and the top-ranked team in the country the next, Duke went one-for-two.
The Blue Devils traveled to Atlanta for the two-day East Lake Cup, a chance to get in early-season match play against the other three teams that advanced to the national semifinals in May. Duke dropped Stanford 4-1 in the first round─which began Monday but was suspended until Tuesday morning due to darkness─before falling to Southern California 4-1 later Tuesday afternoon.
The event was nationally televised on Golf Channel, which Duke head coach Dan Brooks said added excitement to the event.
"It was great,” Brooks said. “The whole thing becomes a bigger deal, and that’s bound to affect people’s enthusiasm for the event, including the players, so I do think it ramps things up a little bit.”
No. 2 Duke dominated play in the semifinal round against No. 3 Stanford, completing all four of its match play victories in fewer than 18 holes. In match play, each Blue Devil paired with a Cardinal golfer, and the winner of each individual earns a point. Duke won three of the matchups by multiple holes. Both Celine Boutier and Sandy Choi completed their matches on the 15th hole in the first round, as Boutier defeated Casey Danielson and Choi took down Quirine Eijkenboom by identical scores of 4&3—four strokes ahead with three holes remaining.
Gurbani Singh defeated Shannon Aubert 3&2 in round one, and Leona Maguire took down Lauren Kim, 2&1. The only Blue Devil setback came when Stanford’s Mariah Stackhouse took down Duke freshman Virginia Elena Carta, 2&1.
“I was very impressed with Gurbani the first day,” Brooks said. "She was up four and was able to finish her round the first day since she had basically put her opponent away, so she didn’t have to come out and finish that match like everyone else did.... She just played some great golf and made some great decisions.”
Later in the day Tuesday, Duke took on top-ranked Southern California but fell short of the overall tournament title. After Carta was the only Blue Devil to lose against Stanford, she was alone in defeating her Trojan opponent, taking down fellow freshman Robynn Ree 2&1 in the first completed match of the afternoon.
“I thought she really settled herself down that second match,” Brooks said. “She’s a freshman, and she was up against a very good player, another freshman on the USC team. She was a real competitor.”
Maguire took Southern California's Gabriella Then to the full 18 holes in the final, but both parred the 18th hole, and Then finished one hole ahead to come away with the point for the Trojans and even the score.
Singh lost to Kyung Kim 3&1 and Boutier and Choi each had their day ended two holes early. Boutier fell to Karen Chung 4&2 and Choi came out on the losing end of a 3&2 decision at the hands of Tiffany Chan.
Despite the setback, Brooks came away pleased with his team's efforts in the finale of their fall tournament slate.
“I wish they would have been rewarded with a win, but I know that they gave it a great effort,” Brooks said. “We made some improvements, and I think on and off the golf course we’ve made improvements as a team, so I think we go into the winter having a legitimate reason to feel great about the fall.”
Brooks pointed to the team's improved putting performance from its last time out, a win at the Landfall Tradition in Wilmington, N.C.
“Some of the players had been working on getting their speed down, making sure their long putts have the right speed. I think they’ve really done a great job,” Brooks said. “These greens were challenging because there was grain along with fairly severe undulation. That’s just an extra complication when you have grain in there, and I thought they handled the speed quite well.”
Baylor─the team that knocked Duke out of last year’s national semifinal match─also competed in Atlanta, but lost to Southern California 4-1 Monday and Stanford 4-0-1 Tuesday in the consolation round. The Bears are currently rank 64th in the country.
Following the East Lake Cup, the Blue Devils head into their winter hiatus from tournament play. They next compete at the Northrop Grumman Challenge in Palos Verdes, Calif., in early February, the first of their four tune-up tournaments for the ACC Championship in April and NCAA Championship in May.
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