Golf Channel Notable Quotes
NCAA Women’s Golf Championships
Team Match Play, Semifinals
Wednesday, May 24, 2017
Rich Harvest Farms
Sugar Grove, Ill.

**Semifinal play was suspended on Tuesday due to darkness and resumed today (Wednesday) at 10 a.m. ET**

**Northwestern will compete against Arizona State in today’s championship match.**

Golf Channel / Wednesday NCAA Championships Programming Schedule (all times ET)
Golf Central Pre Game           2:30-4 p.m.
Championship Match              4-8 p.m.
Golf Central                            8-9 p.m.

Semifinal Match Results
Arizona State defeated Stanford 3-2
Northwestern Southern California 3-2

On the NCAA Women’s Golf Championships Semifinals
Bob Papa – “High drama at Rich Harvest Farms for the NCAA Women’s Division I Championships.”
Karen Stupples – “I’m sitting here in complete disbelief and almost an emotional wreck from the whole experience to be honest. You have the highs for the victories for the teams, but also the absolute lows. The bottom, gutty feeling that you feel for those players like Gabriella Then, knowing their whole hopes on their teams rested on their shoulders and they didn’t do it. They are so devastated. I really feel for them. Has to be a really tough thing to go through, especially knowing you can’t come back next year for another try.”

On Arizona State defeating Stanford 3-2
Kay Cockerill – “What a difference 13 hours makes and a decision by the Sun Devils to wait and come out this morning.”

Arizona State’s Linnea Strom speaking with Golf Channel’s Billy Ray Brown after her match
Linnea Strom – “I had a good feeling going into today. On 16 yesterday I was a little bit pissed off because I made some mistakes early in the round. I wanted to finish the day strong and I did and I had a really good feeling going into today’s round.”
Strom – “Our men’s team came in this morning, so told my assistant coach that ‘Wow, I could hear the guys, this is so good.’ But I just tried to focus on my own game and stay in the present and I did. Finishing on 18 going into 1, I knew that Monica won and I knew it was down to my match. So excited.” 

Arizona State Head Coach Missy Farr-Kaye speaking with Golf Channel’s Kay Cockerill after the semifinals
Missy Farr-Kaye – “What I said to the whole team this morning was, ‘We made it to May 24.’ This was our goal all year. We achieved our goal. So we can’t make any mistakes, let’s relax, let’s go play. I’m so proud of them win or lose. I really wanted them to feel relaxed. They have enough pressure on themselves that they weren’t going to get an ounce of that from me. I said, ‘Let’s go play, let’s go see what we can do, we have a great opportunity let’s just go see what we can do with it.’”

Arizona State’s Monica Vaughn speaking with Golf Channel’s Kay Cockerill after defeating Stanford’s Albane Valenzuela in sudden-death (19 holes)
Monica Vaughn – “That was about the greatest shot I’ve ever hit in my life [the pitch that lipped out for eagle on 18]. I’ve hit that shot a couple of times this week on that hole so I kind of knew what it would be like. I just was ready to go. I think it was a great idea to stop play obviously. Yesterday I had a little angry nervousness in me and today I had good nervousness, so I used that to my advantage and got it done out there.”

Stanford Head Coach Anne Walker speaking with Golf Channel’s Billy Ray Brown after the semifinals
Anne Walker – “I think this match with ASU both yesterday and today shows that women’s college golf in general is just really impressive.”
Walker – “She (Madeline Chou) was unbelievable. Going up against Linnea Strom, top-10 player in the world, first team All-American, Linnea has got accolades galore so I couldn’t be any prouder of Maddie at this point.”
Walker – “We lose Casey this year. I think she is a big loss – her match play record and her heart speaks for itself – but I’m confident that the players coming in can step up and embrace the challenge”

Papa – “What a run it has been by Stanford since we have been broadcasting the NCAA’s.”
Papa – “A great college career for Casey Danielson. It has been a lot of fun watching her grow and be a team leader for Stanford. She has given us a lot of thrills the past three years.”

On Northwestern defeating Southern California 3-2
Cockerill – “The rest for Northwestern did them a world of good.”
Papa – The sophomore [Janet Mao] from Johns Creek Georgia has nerves of steel.”
Curt Byrum – “Her [Janet Mao]’s short game has been razor sharp all day and yesterday.”
Byrum – “She chips and pitches the ball as well as anybody I’ve seen all week.”

Northwestern Head Coach Emily Fletcher speaking with Golf Channel’s Billy Ray Brown following the semifinals
Emily Fletcher – “They just believe in each other. They had an energy this morning and an aura about them. They just felt like they had some fight left in them. There was no give up. I’m telling you they were relaxed this morning. They really felt like they could come out and swing the momentum. We knew we were going to have some people cheering us on. They just kept fighting.”
Fletcher – “I can’t give it enough credit. It has been tremendous. It is amazing what two or three hundred people can do for the spirts of our kids and our energy. Especially coming down the stretch, when something good happens, we knew it and we could feel it. For Janet to make that putt, it couldn’t get any better for us. She endured some tough stuff at Big Ten’s and we told her it was going to make her better and it did.”

Northwestern’s Janet Mao speaking with Golf Channel’s Gail Graham following the semifinals (defeated USC’s Gabriella Then in 19 holes to clinch the 3^rd point for Northwestern)
Janet Mao – “The first thing she [Coach Emily Fletcher] said to me was, ‘Can we get some tears of joy.’ Big Ten’s was a really hard experience for me. Having an experience like that and being able to rally around that and having my girls out here and everybody out here and to make that putt was an unreal feeling. I’m really glad it went in.”
Mao – “When I was over the putt I said, ‘It’s due time for me to make a putt.” So I needed to trust my line, trust my athleticism and it will go in.”

USC Head Coach Andrea Gaston speaking with Golf Channel’s Kay Cockerill following the semifinals
Andrea Gaston – “First I want to say thank you to my Lord and Savior. I feel so blessed that our teams over the years have made it here and so grateful for the opportunity. I know how bad these ladies feel. They fought their hearts out and I’m really proud of them. I know we were in Northwestern’s territory. They had a lot of fans out here but we fought really hard. I thought going in to today with four in the lead that we could hold it but you never know what the momentum swings are going to be. We lost a great player in the fall. We didn’t have a number one this year. We had a really balanced team and just to have this opportunity to be in the final four. I wish we could have made it in the finals, but sometimes that is what it is meant to be, just as it turns out”

USC’s Tiffany Chan speaking with Golf Channel’s Curt Byrum following her match
Tiffany Chan – “I tried to play my best out there, because every stroke counts and in match play anything can happen. We came short last year so everyone wants to win as much as they could. I wasn’t hitting my best, I think both of us got a little tired but I scrambled a lot. Thank God I have my first point.”

USC’s Muni He speaking with Golf Channel’s Kay Cockerill following her match
Muni He – “This is so exciting. I have never played anything like this where I’m playing for a team. The crowds out here are insane – and most of them are supporting Northwestern. It was an extra amount of stress and pressure for sure.”

-NBC Sports Group-