In the final hole of the fifth and decisive match. That’s where the NCAA Final was decided. The competition was fierce, but this time the coin did not fall on the side of the Stanford girls. Andrea Revuelta missed the birdie putt to send the match to a playoff, and Northwestern caused an upset by winning 3-2 to be crowned champions of the year. The first NCAA victory in history for the team from Illinois.
The title favourites fell just short of repeating the title won in 2024 and emulating the feat of defending the crown, something that hasn’t happened since Duke achieved it almost two decades ago. On the way to the final, neither Paula nor Andrea had lost any matches, but in the decisive encounter, they couldn’t help the team with any points for Stanford. Despite winning by more than 20 strokes in the stroke play phase, the Cardinal couldn’t embellish a historic year for them with the NCAA championship title.
Things started very well for Stanford, who began the day strongly thanks to the victory of Megha Ganne, who dominated Ashley Yun from start to finish with a convincing 5&4. Ganne had just defeated the World Number One, Lottie Woad, in 20 holes in the semi-finals and once again showed her best form by taking five of the first eight holes.
Paula played the second match of the day and started by taking the lead with a birdie on the 2nd hole. However, Lauryn Nguyen, soon turned the situation around and was already one hole ahead by the 6th tee. The Northwestern player remained firm and reached the penultimate flag two up. There came the brilliant reaction of the Madrid player, who won two consecutive holes to level the match and go all out on the 18th. On the decisive hole, Nguyen made the birdie, and Paula couldn’t match it. At that moment, Northwestern went 2-1 ahead overall as the third match had just been resolved by 3&2 with Hsin Tai Lin against Maja Ortengren. In the blink of an eye, Stanford was on the ropes.
Stanford’s second point was secured by Kelly Xu, who also needed to come back. She was one down upon reaching the 16th hole but strung together two birdies on the 16th and 17th and closed the match against Elise Lee on the 18th (1UP). With this victory, Xu equalled the historical record for most match play wins in the NCAA, with 7 victories, alongside Shannon Aubert and Casey Danielson. A closely contested match.
Everything was left in the hands of Andrea Revuelta, who saw Dianna Lee take the lead on the fifth hole and never lose the initiative. As things stood, on the 13th hole, the Northwestern player was three up. Andrea, being the competitor she is, won consecutive holes and was just one hole behind with three to play. She couldn’t level the match and missed the birdie on the 18th. Game, set, match, and championship for Northwestern.
In this cruel way, Stanford closes the season with nine stroke-play titles, the highest number in the program’s history, and six individual champions. Additionally, they became the first team since 2015-2016 to reach the final in two consecutive years.
