Women’s Golf Advances to Semifinal Round with 3-2 Win Over Illinois State

Monday, February 4

Royal Lakes Course | Lakewood Ranch, FL

18 Holes

University of Akron

MAC Match Play Challenge

Photo by: Ernie Aranyosi

Women’s Golf Advances to Semifinal Round with 3-2 Win Over Illinois State

February 04 | Women's Golf

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Lakewood Ranch, Fla. – The Akron Zips women's golf team defeated Illinois State 3-2 in the quarterfinal round of the Mid-American Conference Match Play Challenge on Monday afternoon at Lakewood Ranch Golf and Country Club.

Senior Danielle Nicholson (Geneva, Ohio) led the way with a 4&3 win, while freshman Ivana Shah (Mumbai, India) and sophomore Abbie Pearce (Green, Ohio) won 4&2 and 3&1, respectively.

Nicholson and her opponent, Emma Sutton, were square after the first hole, but that quickly changed. The former MAC champion secured the second hole to go 1up and increased the lead to 2up after the fourth. Sutton cut into the deficit by securing the sixth hole, but Nicholson earned the hole back on the eighth and picked up another on the ninth. Nicholson carried a three-hole lead into the back-9 and pushed the advantage to 4up on hole No. 11 and kept it through 14 where the match ended.

Shah, dropped the first hole to ISU's Caitlin Sims, but evened the match after two holes. She established her first lead on hole number four, but by the end of the front-9 the match was all-square. On the back-9, Shah gained control of the scorecard on the 11^th hole. She increased the lead to 2up on 12 and moved to 3up after 14. On hole No. 15, Shah established a 4-hole advantage where the match ended.

Rounding out the team wins was Pearce. She defeated Paige Seiser after taking the lead on hole No. 1. Pearce held the 1up advantage through the first three holes, but Seiser evened the match on No. 4. The match remained all-square through 10 holes, and on the 11^th Pearce earned the final advantage. She moved to 2up on the 14^th hole and went to 3up after 17 holes played.

Senior Makayla Dull (Fremont, Ohio) dropped her match 4&3 to ISU's Morgan Savage. Dull fell behind on the first hole, but squared the match after the second hole. Two holes later, Dull was 1up, but Savage evened the match on the fifth hole. Savage continued to win holes seven and eight. Down two holes, Dull cut the lead in half on the ninth hole, but Savage established a 3up lead by hole No. 13 and won No. 14 to end the match. Junior Allyson Wentworth (Stewartsville, N.J.) also dropped a match 5&3 to the Redbirds' Becca Black

The Zips received a bye into the afternoon round and squared-off against Illinois State who defeated Western Illinois 5-0 in the morning flight.

The Zips are scheduled to play top-seeded Florida Gulf Coast in the semifinal round on Tuesday morning. The action is scheduled to begin at 7:50 a.m. from hole No.1 with seven-minute intervals. Dull will lead the way at 7:50 a.m. followed by Wentworth (7:57), Shah (8:04), Pearce (8:11) and Danielle (8:18). If the Zips win, they are scheduled to play the winner of the Bowling Green and Northern Illinois. Fans can follow the match via Golf Stat Live Scoring.