Championship website | Scoring | Record book
Dates: Saturday June 14 and Sunday, June 15
Format: Four-ball match play on Saturday; Singles matches on Sunday
Host site: Kiln Creek Golf Club & Resort
Day 2: Virginia clinches 27th VA-MD title after Sunday's singles performances
Newport News -- For the third consecutive year, Virginia remains in possession of the Poindexter Cup with an 8.5-3.5 win over Maryland. Virginia sat in first place after Saturday's four-ball matches and with six singles wins it secured the victory. With the weekend's triumph, Virginia improved its all-time record in this matchup to 21-5-1.
Five of Virginia's wins on Sunday wrapped up early after strong front nine performances from the girls. Sophie Cao finished 6 & 4 — just as she did on Saturday, Rose Hall wrapped up 3 & 2, Emerson Roychoudhury claimed Virginia's third single match point with a 4 & 3 finish, Alexis Goboy bested her Saturday performance with a dominant 8 & 7 victory and Karoline Sweet finished 5 & 4.
Maryland's two singles points came from Joelle Johnson who beat Virginia's Carter Bransford and Caitlyn Navaleza who competed against Ashika Vuradi.
Cao — who's represented Team Virginia for two years — said it was fun to be back playing in this event and that she enjoyed cheering on her teammates and competing.
"It's great because even though a lot of the players from the team change it's still nice that we all pulled our own weight, and it just feels really good to be able to do this again and have a good result."
Quotable:
- "This is one of the only team events that I play during the year. So being able to represent my state — and doing it with a bunch of people that I love — it's just really special. I love that VSGA, like MSGA hosts this event for us." -- Cao
- " I thought it was we had really good team chemistry, and everyone was getting along really well. We would always hang out in each other's hotel rooms at night and get to know each other during team lunches and dinners — we talked a lot, and it was really nice. I got to know a lot of people better, and then also got to bond more with the girls I already knew." -- Cao
- "Playing with Emerson [Roychoudhury] yesterday was super fun. We've been friends for a really long time, but we don't see each other at a lot of tournaments, and we never played together anymore. It was really fun getting to play with her again as a team. It was definitely one of the highlights I've had so far this year." -- Cao
Day 1: Team Virginia ahead after first round
Newport News -- After Saturday's four-ball session, Virginia topped the leaderboard and led Maryland 2.5-1.5. Virginia's duo of Emerson Roychoudhury and Sophie Cao secured the state's first point with a commanding 6 & 4 win after controlling the front nine.
Rose Hall and Alexis Goboy claimed Virginia's second point with a 2 & 1 win over Maryland's Malaya Johnson and Claire Son. The matchup between VA's Ashika Vuradi and Aurora Yoo and MD's Julianna Ishii and Caitlyn Navaleza ended in a tie resulting in half a point for both teams.
The final match between Maryland's Lila Becker and Andie Greenberg and Virginia's Karoline Sweet and Carter Bransford was decided on the 18th hole after the teams remained tied for the previous three. Becker and Greenberg bested Virginia to claim Maryland's lone full point of round one.