Clemson Defeats Virginia in ACC Championship Semifinals

Clemson, SC—Sydney Roberts defeated Rebecca Skoler 1-UP to give Clemson a 3-2 victory over Virginia in the semifinals of the Atlantic Coast Conference Match Play Championship early Sunday afternoon at Porter’s Neck Golf Club in Wilmington, NC.

The victory moved Clemson into the championship match against #1 seed and third ranked Wake Forest later Sunday afternoon.

In the championship match, Wake Forest was ahead in two matches, Clemson was ahead in one, and two were tied when play was halted due to weather at 5:02 p.m.

Clemson will be attempting to win its second consecutive ACC Women’s golf Championship against the Demon Deacons.

The semifinal match against Virginia was a rematch of last year’s ACC championship when Clemson defeated Virginia 3-1-1 to win its first ACC Women’s Golf Championship in history. Clemson qualified second for the match play championship by finishing at 16-under-par 848 in the stroke play portion of the event. Virginia was the #3 seed off its third place finish in stroke play.

Roberts, who had the fifth best stroke average on the Clemson team entering the ACC Tournament, took a 2-up lead through the fifth hole of the match, the 14th hole on the course. But Skoler won the 15th and 16th holes to tie the match. Skoler then won the first hole to go 1-up with eight holes left.

But Roberts won the sixth hole to take a 1-up lead. The two players tied the seventh, eighth and ninth holes to give Roberts the victory and Clemson the team victory.

Earlier, Clemson’s Isabella Rawl defeated Virginia’s Jaclyn LaHo at the third match by a 4+3 score. Rawl was dominant in winning five of the first nine holes. The Clemson sophomore won the 11th, 12th, 13th, 15th and 17th holes on the course. LaHo won the first hole, the 10th hole of the match, to cut the lead to 4-up, but it would be LaHo’s only win of the match. The players tied the next five holes to give Rawl the 4+3 win.

With the victory, Rawl improved to 5-0 in match play as a Clemson golfer over her two years, including 3-0 in the ACC Tournament. She won the clinching match last year with a 1-UP victory over Megan Propeck.

Melena Barrientos defeated Propeck , 2-up in an earlier match on Sunday. Barrientos was 3-up through 12 holes, then Propeck won two holes to make it a 1-up lead for Barrientos and that was the score entering the last hole, the ninth hole on the course. All the Clemson junior needed to do was tie the last hole to win, but she won it to take the 2-0 victory.