Women's Golf Finishes Tied for 3rd at the Veritex Bank Texas Showdown
DALLAS, Texas. – Baylor women’s golf clinched a third-place finish in the match play portion of the Veritex Bank Texas Showdown with a 2.5-2.5 tie against UCF on Tuesday afternoon at Dallas Athletic Club.
Junior Sera Hasegawa won both of her matches on Tuesday, extending her career match play record to 11-1. In the morning session, she beat SMU's Mackenzie Lee 5&4 and then beat UCF's Brittany Shin 3&2 in the afternoon.
Co-host SMU captured the team title with a 4-0-1 win over Maryland in the championship match.
THE RUNDOWN
Morning Session
Hasegawa won the first two holes to go 2-up, where she would stay through six holes. A win by Lee at No. 9 trimmed Hasegawa’s lead to just one, but the junior got rolling with another win at No. 12, followed by wins at Nos. 14, 15 and 16 to close out the match.
Rosie Belsham dropped her match to Emily Odwin 2-up in the semifinals. Odwin took the first lead with a win at No. 3, only to see Belsham drawback even with a win at No. 4. Wins at Nos. 5 and 7 by Odwin lifted the Mustang to a 2-up lead before Belsham battled back with wins at Nos. 8 and 9. The tug of war continued on the back nine when Odwin picked up wins at Nos. 10, 11 and 13 to build a 3-up lead, eventually winning 2-up.
Yoonjeong Huh dropped her match 3&2 against June Song in the morning session. Huh took an early lead with a win at No. 5 before back-to-back wins by Song at Nos. 7 and 8 flipped the match in her favor. Wins at Nos. 10 and 11 gave Song a 3-up lead, and while Huh would get as close as 1-down through 11, she would eventually fall 3&2.
Ashleen Kaur fell 4&3 against Ellie Szeryk. The senior from SMU won each of the first two holes to take a 2-up lead. She would collect wins at Nos. 6, 7, 8 and 11 to 6-up with eight holes to play. Kaur would win at Nos. 12 and 13 to keep the match alive until a pair of halves ended the match at No. 14.
Silje Ohma fell down early in a 5&4 setback against Ashley Chow. The BU sophomore dropped each of her first four holes to go 4-down. Ohma would battle back to trim Chow’s lead to 3-up at Nos. 7, 11 and 13, but Lee took wins at Nos. 15 and 16 to close out the match.
Tess Davenport defeated BaiMai Seema 6&5 in the semifinal match. Wins on three of the first four holes staked Davenport to a 3-up lead, which would swell to 5-up with two more wins at Nos. 8 and 9.
Afternoon Session
Belsham dominated her afternoon match, winning 5&4 over UCF's Katie Poots. BU’s senior broke the tie with a win on the third hole of the match at No. 11. After poots tied things at No. 12, Belsham reeled off three wins in four holes to take the 3-up lead. On the 12th hole of the match, Belsham strung together back-to-back wins at Nos. 2 and 3 to go 5-up and would put things away with a halve at No. 4.
Hasegawa capped off a 2-0 day with a 3&2 win over Brittany Shin. Hasegawa won the first hole, but Shin fought back to tie her at Nos. 9 and again at No. 12. At No. 14, Hasegawa won twice in three holes to take her largest lead in the match at 2-up. Leading by one at No. 4, Hasegawa picked up back-to-back wins to push her lead to 3-up and close out the match at No. 5.
BaiMai Seema battled her way to a tie against UCF’s Jess Baker. Seema took a 1-up lead in the match early before back-to-back wins by Baker flipped it in her favor. BU’s Seema squared the match a hole later and went back in front with a win at No. 17. She held a 1-up lead through 17, but Baker picked up a win on the final hole to halve the match.
Silje Ohma dropped her match in the afternoon 1-up to UCF's Molly Smith. BU's sophomore took a 1-up lead at No. 6 and again at No. 10. Smith picked up a win at No. 11, and it would be the last hole won by either player until the final hole, where Smith carded a par at the par-3 4th to take the hole and the match.
Ashleen Kaur fell 3&1 in the afternoon to Pimpisa Sisutham. Sisutham won the first two holes of the match and would pick up a third win at No. 13 to go 3-up. Kaur would battle back to 2-down at Nos. 15, 1 and 3 before a win by Sisutham put the match away 3&1.
HIGHLIGHTS
Sera Hasegawa never trailed in any of her matches on Monday and was only tied on three occasions.
Hasegawa improved to 11-1 at BU in her two seasons with the Bears.
Belsham improved to 9-6 in traditional match play matches.
QUOTABLE:
Associate head coach Carly Ludwig — “It would have definitely been nice to get the match-play win today along with the stroke-play win yesterday, but as a team, I think we are building confidence and beginning to show how great we can be. We saw a fantastic performance from Sera today, again going undefeated in match play. We had a lot of fun this afternoon against a new Big 12 member in UCF, seeing a lot of birdies. I think Silje and BaiMai had three birdies each in the first seven holes and were still tied. That shows how competitive these matches were; it was great to see the fight. We are looking forward to taking this momentum into the postseason.”
WHAT’S NEXT
The Bears will tee it up in the Big 12 Championship April 18-20 at the Clubs at Houston Oaks in Hockley, Texas. For more information on Baylor Women’s Golf, follow @BaylorWGolf on X, Instagram and Facebook.