U.S. Women's Amateur: Rao Makes Second Straight Match Play Quarterfinals

For the second consecutive year, Princeton rising sophomore Catherine Rao made the match-play quarterfinals at the U.S. Women's Amateur.

Rao's run ended Friday in the round of eight as Stanford rising senior and ninth-seeded Rachel Heck won their match, 8 and 6. After standing tied through two holes, Heck won holes three through eight to build a lead before winning two of what became the final four holes and clinching it on the 12th.

The event was held at Bel Air Country Club in Los Angeles, just about an hour east of Rao's hometown of Camarillo, Calif.

Rao, seeded 16th, moved on to the quarterfinals by going an extra hole with 32nd-seeded Catie Craig on Thursday, a rising junior at Western Kentucky, a round after Craig knocked off top-seeded Oregon grad student Briana Chacon.

Rao was especially strong over the last eight holes after standing two holes down through 11. Rao won the next three to go up one hole through 14, saw Craig take two of the next three to take a one-hole lead going into 18, and then won the next two holes, taking 18 to keep the match going and 19 to win it.

In the first of what became two rounds for Rao on Thursday, Rao defeated 17th-seeded Canadian Vanessa Zhang, an incoming freshman at Gonzaga, 3-and-2, closing out the win by taking the 15th and 16th holes to clinch. Rao won three of the first four holes and led the rest of the way.

In the first match-play round, Rao went two extra holes to defeat Pepperdine rising sophomore and 17th seed Jeneath Wong of Malaysia on Wednesday. The match against Wong was never more than a hole apart until Rao won three straight holes, 13 through 15, to build a three-hole lead, but Wong put together a three-hole rally of her own with three to play to tie it and force extra holes. Heading back to the start, each player birdied the par-5 first hole, 19th overall, and Rao won by making par in four on the second hole, 20th overall, with Wong bogeying.

Rao advanced to match play after turning in a 1-under 139 over two days of stroke play to make the cut in the 156-player field, tying for 16th overall.

The 2023 Ivy League Rookie of the Year and a first-team All-Ivy League honoree, Rao made the quarterfinals at the 2022 U.S. Women's Amateur at Chambers Bay.

Complete scoring is available here.

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