There was no upset this time — the Stanford women’s golf team made sure of it.
On Wednesday, the Cardinal cruised to their third NCAA women’s golf championship in the last five years, downing Southern California 4-1 in the final at Omni La Costa Resort & Spa in Carlsbad, Calif.
Stanford earned the No. 1 seed for the match-play portion of the championship for the sixth straight year, although last year it was upset by Northwestern in the final, which ended the Cardinal’s hope of a title defense after they won in 2024.
But that upset storyline hardly had a heartbeat this time around.
Meja Ortengren beat Jasmine Koo 6 and 5 to give Stanford its first point of the three it needed, and Paula Martin Sampedro earned the second when she beat Catherine Park 3 and 2. Megha Ganne gave Stanford the winning point, beating Bailey Shoemaker 4 and 3. With Stanford clinching after Ganne’s win, the other two matches on the course ended as is, meaning Stanford’s Kelly Xu won 1 up in her match, and Kylie Chong of USC beat Andrea Revuelta 1 up to give the Trojans their only point.
A loaded Stanford team was always the favorite, but that also meant it had to deal with the pressure. All five of Stanford’s players who competed in the NCAA Championships also qualified for the Augusta National Women’s Amateur last month (Revuelta was the runner-up) and four of the five are in the top 10 of the women’s World Amateur Golf Ranking. Sampedro, who won the British Amateur and Ladies European Amateur last summer, is ranked 2nd; Revuelta 3rd; and Ortengren 6th. Ganne, who won the U.S. Women’s Amateur Championship last summer, is 10th; and Xu is 17th.
“These players all season long have been fighting and have had their backs against the wall,” Stanford coach Anne Walker told Golf Channel Wednesday. “They played great. I knew that if we had a chance with this crew we would be in it to the very end. That’s certainly what played out and we are going home the champions.”
The Stanford victory followed dominating wins over Pepperdine in the quarterfinals and Eastern Michigan in the semis; Stanford won both of those 5-0.
“I think the confidence comes from our preparation and knowing how hard they all prepare and how hard I prepare,” Ganne told Golf Channel. “That’s really all we can control, and we do all the things correctly leading up to this week and go in controlling the controllables and knowing we are really good players, and if we follow our routines we’ll end up on top.”
On the women’s side, Stanford now sits alone with four NCAA titles, which trails only Arizona State (eight) and Duke (seven). All of Stanford’s have come since 2015.
The NCAA golf championships continue this week at Omni La Costa with the men’s tournament. The stroke-play portion is Friday to Monday, with match play on Tuesday and Wednesday.
