No. 1 Duke Women's Golf Advances to Finals at CGF National Match Play

ESTERO, FLA. - The No. 1 ranked Duke University women's golf team advanced to the finals of the 2000 College Golf Foundation (CGF) National Intercollegiate Match Play Championships presented by Rolex on Saturday with victories over No. 7 seed Pepperdine (4-1) and No. 3 seed Southern California (3-2).

All afternoon second round matches were called due to darkness at 5:40 (EST), with the final results determined based on where the matches stood at the time of the suspension of play, per the tournament's conditions of competition.

The Blue Devils, the No. 2 seed, will take on No. 8 seed Georgia in the finals on Sunday at the West Bay Club in Estero, Fla. Georgia advanced to the finals with victories over No. 1 seed Arizona (3-2) and No. 5 seed Texas (3.5-1.5).

In the match against Pepperdine, Duke was led with victories by Candy Hannemann (3&1) over Katherine Hill, Maria Garcia-Estrada (2&1) over Lisa Chang, Virada Nirapathpongporn (7&5) over D. Bleichenbacher, and Leigh Anne Hardin (3&2) over Kate Waggoner. Sophomore Kristina Engstrom fell 5&4 to Lindsey Wright.

Then, in the match against Southern California the winners for Duke were Hannemann (2UP) over Mikaela Parmlid, Garcia-Estrada (7&5) over Candie Kung, and Hardin (1UP) over Anna Lee. Engstrom fell 6&5 to Nicole Dalkas and Nirapathpongporn fell (1UP) to Leila Chartrand.

The CGF National Intercollegiate Match Play Team Championships, presented by Rolex, are the highlight events of the Rolex Collegiate Tour, which is administered by the College Golf Foundation.

Sunday's final round will begin with a shotgun start at 7:45 AM (EST).