Stanford women within reach of title match return
Swiss freshman Albane Valenzuela had Stanford on the cusp of a third straight NCAA Women’s Golf Championship title match in Sugar Grove, Illinois.
Valenzuela won three of her last four holes to lead the Cardinal to a 32 victory over Baylor in the quarterfinals. In the semifinals against Arizona State, she rallied from 2 down against NCAA champion Monica Vaughn and took a 1-up lead to the final hole at Rich Harvest Farms.
Because of a rain delay, the semifinals were halted by darkness and were to resume Wednesday morning. Valenzuela and Vaughn were in the fairway on the par-5 18th when Vaughn did not want to continue because she couldn’t see clearly enough to play the shot.
The anchor match between Madeline Chou of Stanford and Linnea Strom of Arizona State was all square through 16 holes.
In the other semifinal match, USC was leading in four of the five matches against host school and top-seeded Northwestern, though all the matches were far from being decided.
Andrea Lee of Stanford earned n two prestigious honors at the NCAA Championships.
She was named the 2016-17 WGCA Division I Freshman of the Year, the first individual national award ever accorded to the Cardinal program. Lee was also selected a WGCA First Team All-American. Lee was also a finalist for National Player of the Year.
Tennis
Florida captured its first NCAA women’s tennis title since 2012, beating defending national champion Stanford 4-1 in Athens, Georgia. In a final forced indoors because of stormy weather, the top-seeded Gators captured the opening point by cruising to a pair of doubles victories before taking three of four singles matches to seal the victory.
Swimming
Olympic champion Katie Ledecky, the Stanford freshman who is the face of swimming, headlines the Pro Swim Series at Santa Clara that opens June 1 at the George F. Haines International aquatics center.
The four-day meet also features Rio Games gold medalists Simone Manuel of Stanford and Berkeleybased Nathan Adrian, Anthony Ervin and Ryan Murphy, USA Swimming announced Tuesday.
Ledecky was the breakout swimmer in Rio after sweeping freestyle races from the 200 meters to the 800 meters. She won four gold medals and a silver while setting two world records.
The Maryland swimmer, who helped lead Stanford to its first NCAA swim title since 1998, hopes to defend world titles this summer in the 200, 400, 800 and 1,500 freestyles.
Manuel was the co-Olympic champion in the 100 meters.
The Santa Clara meet also is expected to feature Cal Olympic medalists Josh Prenot and Kathleen Baker.
Boxing
Looking to get his career back on track, Robert Guerrero is heading east. The Gilroy boxer announced that he will be making his return to the ring against Omar Figueroa in a welterweight clash that will serve as the main event of a Premier Boxing Champions card televised on Fox from Long Island, New York.
Guerrero, 34, (33-5-1, 18 knockouts) is on a two-fight losing streak, most recently dropping a close split decision to David Peralta last August. Guerrero also lost via unanimous decision against then-undefeated Danny Garcia last January in a fight that was contested for the WBC welterweight championship.