NC State women’s golf put up the first, second and third-best 18-hole scores in its ACC Championship history to advance to match play for the first time.
The Wolfpack faced a 2-1 deficit against Duke in the first round, with star sophomore Marie Eline Madsen down two with three holes to play. After the Blue Devils’ Andie Smith bogeyed on the seventh, Madsen shot a birdie on the ninth to send the match to a playoff. In the second extra hole, Smith clinched the point with a 15-foot putt for birdie and sent the Pack home from its furthest trip through the ACC Championship.
Senior Vania Simont won the lone match for NC State, 3&2 over Duke’s Avery McCrery. Simont clinched her sixth career match-play win after claiming holes four through seven on the front nine.
Freshmen Ellie Hildreth and Lindsay McGrath had no such luck. Hildreth lost 2&1 to Rianne Malixi after going up three early, while McGrath lost 4&3 to Anna Cañado Espinal, never leading.
Freshman Elizabeth Sullivan’s match — tied through 17 holes — went unfinished after Madsen lost.
To qualify for match play for the first time since its addition to the ACC Championship in 2020, the Wolfpack finished fifth in stroke play over three rounds. On the way, the team delivered the first, second and third best 18-hole scores in NC State’s ACC Championship history.
On the first day of stroke play, NC State broke its ACC Championship 18-hole record with a 4-under 284. On the next 18 holes, the Pack broke the record it just set with a 5-under 283. NC State shot 285 on the second day for the third-best score.
The first day was one for individual records as much as team ones. Madsen set the individual 18-hole record with a 5-under 67 in the first round before Sullivan shot 7-under 65 in the second round to take the record for herself.
In addition to NC State’s ACC Championship 18-hole record, Sullivan now holds the third-lowest 18-hole score in Pack history and the program’s freshman 18-hole record.
At the end of stroke play, Madsen finished tied for sixth at 6-under-par — a 54-hole ACC Championship record for the program — while four other members of the Pack rounded out the top 30.
Next up for NC State is its NCAA Regional Championship, which starts on May 11.
