Northwestern shocks Stanford, earns first title in school history at NCAA Women's Championship

USA Today

22-05-2025

Northwestern shocks Stanford, earns first title in school history at NCAA Women's Championship
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Drone flyover video of Omni La Costa North Course par-3 16th hole
Omni La Costa is hosting the NCAA mens and womens golf championships for a second year in a row. The North Course's 16th hole is the final par-3.
CARLSBAD, Calif. — With a win in the national championship match, Stanford had an argument to be considered the greatest women's college golf team ever.
The top-ranked team in the nation didn't lose in stroke play this season, matching a mark accomplished only once by Arizona State three decades ago. On Monday at Omni La Costa Resort & Spa, site of the 2025 NCAA Women's Golf Championship, Stanford completed the best 72-hole performance in the history of the NCAA Championship, finishing at 27-under par and essentially stamping its claim as the best team in college golf.
But in match play, the team that was best in stroke play, more often than not, doesn't win the NCAA Championship.
Enter Northwestern. The Wildcats won one tournament this year, lost by 29 strokes to Stanford at NCAAs and finished nine shots behind the Cardinal at the NCAA Norman Regional two weeks ago. But none of that matters in match play, and Northwestern is leaving Carlsbad with its first national title.
Northwestern claimed the NCAA Women's Championship on Wednesday, topping Stanford 3-2 in the match-play final on a sunny afternoon north of San Diego. It's one of the biggest upsets in the history of NCAAs, with the Wildcats preventing Stanford from winning its second consecutive championship and third in four years. A relentless team that took full advantage of the reset match play provides, and the Wildcats are headed back to campus with extra hardware.
'It's surreal,' Northwestern coach Emily Fletcher said. 'Honestly, things are moving really slow right now. I don't think it's really hit any of us.
'It's about doing what this group thought they could do, and that's all they did. They didn't go out to try to prove anybody wrong. They just went out to just be themselves and to just compete as hard as they could. And that was going to be enough.'
Freshman Dianna Lee, who went to high school about 25 miles from Omni La Costa, buried a 5 footer for par on the 18th to beat Andrea Revuelta and give Northwestern the distinction of arguably the biggest upset in women's college golf history.
Lee was 3 up with five to play but lost Nos. 14-15, and Revuelta had a 4-foot par putt on the par-3 16th to tie the match but missed. Then on 17, Lee had a 15 footer to win the match but powered it past the hole. She took deep breaths and reminded herself of what Northwestern's sports psychologist taught her about controlling emotions.
Drained the comebacker. 1 up heading to the 18th tee.
Revuelta hit her approach first into the par 5, finding the back of the green. Lee's shot came up short of the pin and somehow stayed on the green. She hit the first putt and drilled the hole, but the ball was traveling too fast and lipped out about 5 feet to her right. Then Revuelta had a chance to tie the match, but her putt didn't have enough pace and missed low. Lee once again collected herself, stepped over the putt and knocked it in. She proceeded to sprint into her teammates arms, and the celebration was on.
'I'm on such a high right now, especially the championship being at my hometown, it means absolutely everything to me,' Lee said. 'It's so incredibly special. It's like no other. You can't even explain what it means to win a championship in your hometown. It's like you're the main character. That's what I feel like right now.'
Freshman Hsin Tai Lin got the first Northwestern point on the board, topping Stanford freshman Meja Ortengren 3 and 2. But the bigger victory that truly turned the tides was Lauryn Nguyen, the senior from Seattle who was 2 up with three holes to play but watched as her opponent, Paula Martin Sampedro, won Nos. 16-17 to tie the match and take control on the 18th tee box. However, when Sampedro missed a birdie putt on the par 5, Nguyen buried hers from beneath the hole, and the ensuing fist pump and scream sent rumbles throughout the golf course.
Stanford wasn't done, punching back Kelly Xu battled to win her match 1 up on the 18th green. Megha Ganne, in the first match, had a dominating 5-and-4 win over Ashley Yun, but the rest of the scores were purple for a majority of the afternoon.
Northwestern prevented Stanford from winning its second consecutive title and becoming the first team since Duke in 2006-07 to win back-to-back (Duke won in 2005, as well).
'I just know that there's going to be some learnings from this,' Stanford coach Anne Walker said. 'You learn the most when you lose, right? And we haven't lost very much. So a great opportunity to go through that and grow from this moment.'
All five of Stanford's starters in match play will return next season. They'll have a chance to build on what they started but were unable to finish.
Coming into the national championship, the Wildcats competed in match play only once this year, and it happened on a different continent. Northwestern went 0-3-3 in medal match play at the St. Andrews Links Collegiate in Scotland.
'We haven't had a ton of experience in match play,' Fletcher said. 'Maybe it worked a little bit in our favor and that they didn't really know what they were getting into. They knew what they needed to do to take care of their own business, and they did that.'
And the image of Lee's putt and celebration will be remembered as when David defeated Goliath.