With one tournament left on the team’s spring schedule, No. 19 Duke previewed postseason competition at the Old Barnwell Derby Match Play. The Blue Devils competed against three top-15 teams in consecutive rounds of match play, leaving Aiken, S.C., with one win and two losses.
“I’m not happy with the results, but I’m also not devastated,” head coach Dan Brooks said. “There’s nothing about this tournament that diminished who we are as a team.”
The challenging field and course conditions offered the Blue Devils a taste of future championship play. They capitalized on a second chance against tough competition — winning round two against No. 14 Ole Miss — but struggled on the first and third. Of the eight teams competing in Aiken, Duke was ranked the second-lowest in the Feb. 28 coaches poll, one place ahead of No. 20 Auburn.
“The results don’t tell the whole story,” Brooks said. “It was a great tournament for our development because it was another windy tournament at Old Barnwell … this was really good for our games, and I feel great about that.”
The Blue Devils demonstrated their capacity for high-level play in the penultimate check-in. Both sophomore Katie Li and junior Andie Smith led the team, each going 2-1 at the tournament.
“[Andie’s] really developed her wind game … so that was fun to watch, and then Katie, obviously, just had a couple of good wins,” Brooks said.
Against Ole Miss, Smith never gave up the lead. She and the Rebels’ Filippa Sundquist each won a hole before Smith took off, going 4-up through the first nine holes. Although Sundquist was able to narrow the gap, Smith won 2-and-1. Li started strong, and she stayed in close competition with Caitlyn Macnab, overcoming a second half challenge to finish 2-and-1.
Senior Rylie Heflin had a single win against Ole Miss’ Larissa Carrillo, helping Duke claim victory in its second round 3-2. Heflin faced an early surge from Carrillo — 1-up through the third hole — before tying the match and pulling away; Heflin ultimately won 5-and-4 against her competitor.
In the first round, the Gamecocks defeated the Blue Devils 4-1. Li presented a strong showing against South Carolina’s Sophia Burnett; she opened the match going 2-up and denied Burnett any opportunity to take the lead, leaving the course at 3-up. Yet, the Gamecocks handed Duke its first loss at Old Barnwell, with the rest of the team struggling to overcome its opponents.
“We got to play South Carolina, who’s a very good golf team … on a tough course in the wind,” Brooks said. “Some of those matches were really good, for a lot of the matches playing arguably the best team in the country.”
In addition, Duke narrowly lost 4-1 to No. 15 Mississippi State in round three, with the Blue Devils tied or leading across three matches through 16 holes. Smith was the sole Duke competitor to escape with a win, overtaking the Bulldogs’ Ana Pina Ortega on hole No. 12 and finishing 2-up. Freshmen Anna Cañado Espinal and Carla De Troia each attempted a last-minute win from behind, tied with their competitors on hole No. 16, but they both failed to recover the lead and lost 1-up.
“There were some shots missed, obviously we lost two of the three matches. Hopefully, we’ll go to work on [that] because the wind might have gotten us a few times,” Brooks said.
With the ACC Championship one month away, the Blue Devils know where — and how — they need to improve. Hitting the ball low and working to “keep it out of the wind” will help the team maintain better control when playing future holes. Brooks also noted the benefit of having such a recent developmental experience, as it adds “immediacy” to preparation for the windy conditions Duke might face in competition.
Brooks remains confident that the Blue Devils will continue to grow in the coming weeks and play their best towards the end of the spring.
“It’s just the nature of the players that come to Duke … you do things well when it matters,” he said.
The Blue Devils’ next opportunity comes March 28-30 at the Chattanooga Classic in Chattanooga, Tenn.
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Ryan Kilgallen is a Trinity sophomore and an associate news editor for the news department.