The Oklahoma State Cowgirls found themselves to be little match for the Arkansas Razorbacks on Tuesday.
The Cowgirls, who were the No. 6 seed after stroke play at the NCAA Women’s Golf Championships, drew No. 3 seeded Arkansas and were eliminated in the first round of match play, which determines the championship.
Advertisement
Oklahoma State was playing in match play for the first time since 2021 after getting out of stroke play as one of the Top 8 teams in the tournament. But advancing to the semifinals wasn’t to be.
Oklahoma State vs. Arkansas
Reagan Zibliski (Arkansas) def. Ellie Bushnell (OSU), 3 and 2
Abbey Schutte (Arkansas) def. Summer Lee (OSU), 3 and 1
Sara Brentcheneff (Arkansas) def. Yu-Chu Chen (OSU), 3 and 2
Maria Jose Marin (Arkansas) def. Marta Silchenko (OSU), 2 up
Natalie Blonien (Arkansas) def. Tarapath Panya (OSU), 1 up
The matches between Blonien-Panya and Marin-Silchenko ended on the 14th and 15th holes, respectively, as the Razorbacks had already claimed the victory by inning the first three matches. None of the matches got to the final hole of the course.
Advertisement
Arkansas advanced to a semifinal match with USC. The other semifinal features Stanford and Eastern Michigan.
The Cowgirls didn’t have many issues getting to match play, as they began the tournament in third place as a team and remained in that spot through the first three rounds. Conditions changed at the Omni La Costa Resort & Spa course during Monday’s final around and some late missteps caused the Cowgirls to drop into the No. 6 seed.
Oklahoma State in Stroke Play
Here were the Cowgirls’ final scores after four rounds at La Costa:
Ellie Bushnell: 68-73-68-73-282 (6-under)
Marta Silchenko: 70-70-69-74-283 (5-under)
Advertisement
Yu-Chu Chen: 73-68-77-76-294 (6-over)
Summer Lee: 72-77-72-78-299 (11-over)
Tarapath Panya: 74-75-76-82-307 (19-over)
By finishing in the Top 10, juniors Ellie Bushnell and Marta Silchenko were named to the NCAA all-Tournament team. They were the first pair of Cowgirls to finish in the Top 10 in the same NCAA Tournament since 2004.
Bushnell cleared 300 birdies for her OSU career with one more year remaining in the program.
Silchenko claimed her seventh Top 10 finish of the season and had 20 under-par rounds for the campaign. She is getting ready to compete for the international team in the Palmer Cup comng up this summer. Like Bushnell she has one more year with the program.
Advertisement
All five Cowgirls that advanced to nationals have at least one year of eligilbity left.
This article was originally published on www.si.com/college/oklahomastate as Oklahoma State Bows Out of NCAA Women’s Golf Championship.
Read the full article here