Arizona women’s golf squeaks into NCAA match play quarterfinals

The Arizona women’s golf team qualified for the NCAA quarterfinals on Monday, securing the final spot in match play.

The Wildcats entered the day in ninth place and shot 3-over par to finish with Arizona State in a tie for seventh. ASU has the tiebreaker, so Arizona is the 8-seed.

The Wildcats nearly fell out of the top-8 but Florida State double bogeyed on its last hole to secure Arizona’s spot.

“My hair is white and my pulse is over 160, but I’m so proud of my team today” UA head coach Laura Ianello said on Golf Channel. “They came on, they fought hard.”

Arizona will face No. 1 Stanford at 7 a.m. on Tuesday. The Cardinal finished 13 strokes better than No. 2 Duke, but Ianello is confident.

“You just got to get into match play,” she said. “Doesn’t matter if you’re the 1-seed or the 8-seed, we obviously proved that three years ago (when they won a national championship). So we’re in, and now we just go to battle tomorrow, see who we got, and go from there. But anything’s possible.”

The NCAA Championship round is being held at Grayhawk Golf Club in Scottsdale. No. 5 golfer Gile Bite Starkute led the Wildcats on Monday by shooting 3-under par.

Here’s a look at the leaderboard: