The Alabama women’s golf team will be the No. 2 seed in Tuesday’s match play quarterfinals after tying UCLA for first place on the final day of stroke play at the 2018 NCAA Women’s Golf Championships in Stillwater, Okla.

The Crimson Tide will meet No. 7 seed Kent State in Tuesday morning’s quarterfinals beginning at 7 a.m. CT at the par-72, 6,328 Karsten Creek Golf Club.

Alabama (292-286-284-299/1,161) finished Monday’s fourth round 11-over par to end stroke play +9. UCLA (294-279-297-291/1,161) also finished at +9 after a 3-over par day but was awarded the No. 1 match play seed based on head-to-head finishes in the individual standings.

“The girls said the greens were a little faster today,” Alabama head coach Mic Potter said following the round. “I couldn’t tell a big difference, but we weren’t as sharp for sure. I think everybody in this field had that kind of day at one point or another, we’re just really fortunate we built a pretty big cushion and could afford to have our bad day today.”

Junior Cheyenne Knight (70-69-70-74/283) finished fourth in the individual standings at -5, three shots behind individual medalist Jennifer Kupcho of Wake Forest.

Knight’s 72-hole score is one stroke behind the school record 6-under par (282) she shot at the 2016 NCAA Championships in Eugene, Ore.

Junior Lauren Stephenson (74-69-70-74/287) and sophomore Kristen Gillman (73-72-70-72/287) tied for seventh at -1, giving the Tide three top-10 stroke play finishers for the first time in program history at the NCAA Championships.

Freshman Angelica Moresco (75-76-78-79/308) tied for 67th at +20 and senior Lakareber Abe (76-81-74-83/314) finished 75th at +26.

The Alabama-Kent State winner will meet the winner of the match-up between No. 3 seed USC and No. 6 seed Duke in Tuesday afternoon’s semifinals. The other side of the quarterfinal bracket will feature No. 1 seed UCLA against No. 8 seed Arizona and No. 4 Northwestern taking on No. 5 Stanford.

“We can’t take anything for granted,” Potter said. “In the SEC tournament we played really well in three matches and not very well in two. They’re all worth a point and it doesn’t matter how much you win by so we’ve got to have everybody engaged and ready to go out there and play great. We’ve just got to go to the first tee, play aggressively and take the conditions as they come.”

Winners of the morning quarterfinals will advance to Tuesday afternoon’s semifinal round, which is scheduled to begin at 1:30 p.m. CT. Coverage of Tuesday’s quarterfinals will air live on the Golf Channel beginning at 10 a.m. CT. Semifinal coverage will begin at 3 p.m. CT.

 

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