Punahou graduates Mariel Galdiano and Allisen Corpuz left an impression at this week’s NCAA Women’s Golf Championship in Stillwater, Okla., but got stopped short of the ultimate goal.
Galdiano, from Pearl City, tied for seventh in the individual competition and helped her UCLA team capture the stroke-play portion of the tournament Monday. But the top-seeded Bruins, playing two juniors, two sophomores (including Galdiano) and a freshman, were upset by eighth-seeded Arizona in the first round of match play. Galdiano won her match in the 3-2 loss.
Corpuz, a USC sophomore, helped lift her young squad into the eight-team match-play final. The third-seeded Trojans beat sixth-seeded Duke in the opening round, but fell to second-seeded Alabama in Wednesday morning’s semifinals.
Arizona, which had to beat Baylor in a playoff to earn the final match-play spot, beat Alabama to win the championship Wednesday afternoon.
Corpuz finished 27th in stroke play, a shot behind ’Iolani graduate Rose Huang, a Brigham Young freshman who qualified as an individual.
UCLA tied a single-season program record with seven wins this season, including its second straight Pac-12 championship. Galdiano was named All-Pac-12 first team, with five top-10 finishes. Recently she was named to the U.S. Curtis Cup team for the second time, and to the U.S. team for this summer’s Arnold Palmer Cup.
Corpuz’s Trojans played four freshmen and a sophomore in the spring and reached the semifinals for the second straight year. Wednesday, Corpuz lost her match against Alabama All-American Cheyenne Knight, 3 and 1.
Senior Brittany Fan, from Pearl City, held a share of 17th after three rounds, but her Colorado team was in 19th place in the 24-team field and and only the top 15 played the final day.
Earlier, Corpuz earned honorable mention on the Pac-12 women’s golf All-Academic team. USC sophomore Kyle Suppa, also a Punahou alum, received honorable mention on the men’s team. Both are business majors.
Suppa’s men’s team won its first Pac-12 team title since 2011, but finished ninth in this week’s NCAA Pacific Regional and did not qualify for next week’s NCAA men’s championship.