ATLANTA – Drawing the top seed and defending national champion Duke in Tuesday's East Lake Cup semifinal was never going to be easy. But just like they did against top-seeded Texas in the quarterfinals at last year's NCAA Championship, the Auburn women's golf team found a way.
The Tigers defeated Duke, 3-2, to advance to the final at the 2019 East Lake Cup.
"I thought we played very solid," Auburn head coach Melissa Luellen said. "They were very ready to play. I think that's our experience we pulled from last year in match play. We play match play at our SEC Championship, and I think that helps prepare our conference teams to play in match play. We've had some really good experience in match play and some good film and good feelings.
"You step out here and all the teams out here are really good, all the players are really good, and we feel like we're a really good team, too."
Though freshman Megan Schofill wasn't a part of last year's team, she was more than ready for the challenge of match play. Schofill secured the first point for Auburn with a 4&3 victory over Duke junior Miranda Wang in the first match of the day.
"It was really cool because that was my first collegiate match play (experience)," Schofill said. "To win, it was an awesome feeling just knowing that I was the first match out and I really wanted to get the first point for our team. Knowing that I accomplished that was really cool."
After junior Kaleigh Telfer dropped a back-and-forth match on the 18th hole, Brooke Sansom picked Auburn up with a 3&2 win over Gina Kim to give the Tigers a 2-1 lead at that point.
Not long after Sansom won her match, teammate Mychael O'Berry notched the deciding third point for Auburn. It was a dominant performance from O'Berry, who finished with a 5&4 victory over Ana Belac, the individual champion from Monday's round of stroke play.
"I'm super excited," O'Berry said. "I'm proud of my teammates for helping me out. We just played our game and got it done today."
With Wake Forest beating Arizona in the other semifinal Tuesday, the Tigers will face a Wake Forest team in the championship match that knocked them out in the semifinals of the NCAA Championship last May.
"We have to get ourselves ready for tomorrow and have the same mindset of 'It's a brand new day,'" Luellen said. "Just because we won today, it really doesn't give us any kind of an advantage. We're going to be playing the winner of the afternoon match. We're just excited to have the opportunity to compete."
Because of possible weather concerns in the area, Wednesday's tee times have been moved up. Auburn and Wake Forest will now tee off at 7:30 a.m. CT from the first hole. You can watch live coverage on the GOLF channel from 9:30 a.m. – 2 p.m. CT. Live scoring can also be found on Golfstat.com.
Match Play Results – Semifinals
Auburn def. Duke, 3-2
Megan Schofill (AU) def. Miranda Wang (Duke), 4&3
Erica Shepherd (Duke) def. Kaleigh Telfer (AU), 1-UP
Brooke Sansom (AU) def. Gina Kim (Duke), 3&2
Jaravee Boonchant (Duke) def. Julie McCarthy (AU), 3&2
Mychael O'Berry (AU) def. Ana Belac (Duke), 5&4