No. 2 Arkansas' Historic Season Ends in the NCAA Quarterfinals

CARLSBAD, Calif. – The Razorbacks fell, 3-2, to No. 11 Northwestern in the match play quarterfinals on Tuesday morning at Omni La Costa Resort & Spa.

The Hogs dominated to earn two points, with senior Kendall Todd defeating Dianna Lee 3&2 and sophomore Abbey Schutte taking down Ashley Yun 4&3 for her second career match play victory. Todd and Schutte solidified their wins with back-to-back tee shots within two feet of the hole on No. 16 that played at 140 yards on Tuesday.

Arkansas led in three of five matches for a majority of the day, but a two-hole lead slipped in the second match between junior Reagan Zibilski and Elise Lee with 5 holes to play. Lee gained the lead on the 16th hole of the round and the pair tied 17 and 18 to give Northwestern its first point of the quarterfinal.

Sophomore Maria José Marin, winner of the NCAA individual title the day prior, trailed for most of her match but made par on the 10th hole (No. 1) to cut Hsin Tai Lin’s lead to 1 up. The pair tied the next three holes before freshman from Northwestern pushed her lead to three holes with two to play and winning the Wildcats’ second point.

Arkansas freshman Clarisa Temelo won the first hole of her match, against Lauryn Nguyen, on the par-4 eleventh hole. Nguyen, the 30th ranked golfer according to Clippd’s National Collegiate Golf Ranking, picked up four unanswered wins to take a 3-up lead with seven holes to play. Temelo parred and birdied the next two holes and cut Nguyen’s lead to 1-up headed into the par-4 fifth hole, the 14th of the match. Nguyen picked up a birdie and another hole to go back to 2-up. With four holes left and in a 2 hole deficit, Temelo rallied with wins on holes 7 and 9 to tie the match and head to a playoff.

The pair replayed the 430 yard par-4 seventh hole, with Nguyen’s approach shot on the green and Temelo’s short of the green. Temelo birdie putt from the fringe got it within 10 feet of the hole but she missed her par putt. Nguyen made her putt for par and clinched the match for Northwestern’s first trip to the semifinals since 2017.

1-seed Stanford defeated 8-seed Virginia 3 1/2-1 1/2, 2-seed Oregon took down 7-seed Texas 3-2, and 4-seed Florida State advanced to t he semifinals with a 3 1/2-1 1/2 victory over 5-seed Southern California.

The Hogs ended their historic 2024-25 season with four team wins and five individual medals.

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