No. 8 USC Women's Golf Set For 2022 NCAA Championships

No. 8 USC, a three-time winner this year coming off of a victory at the NCAA Stanford Regional, will pursue the program's fourth NCAA title beginning Friday at the 2022 NCAA Championships at Grayhawk G.C. in Scottsdale, Ariz., the tournament running through Wednesday (May 20-25).

NCAA CHAMPIONSHIP INFO
For the seventh time, the NCAA women's golf team champion will be decided in a combination of stroke and match play. The 24 teams that advanced out of regionals will compete in 72 holes of stroke play, the top 15 advancing to a final round (May 23), where the individual winner will be determined as well. The top eight teams after 72 holes will be seeded into a match-play format. Quarterfinals and semifinals will be held on May 24 and the final will be May 25.

Action begins at 6:30 a.m. PT Friday through Sunday (May 20-22). Monday's final individual round starts at approximately 10 a.m. PT. Tuesday's match play quarterfinals begin at 6:20 a.m. PT with semifinals to follow at approximately 12:45 p.m.. Wednesday's final match starts at approximately 1:35 p.m. PT.

Golf Channel will televise three days of coverage, starting with the final individual round beginning at 2 p.m. PT. Golf Channel will televise quarterfinal play Tuesday starting at 9 a.m. PT and semifinals will air at 2 p.m. PT. Live coverage of the final round Wednesday will start at 2 p.m. PT.

USC will tee off Friday in the afternoon wave off of 1, beginning at 12:25 p.m. PT, paired with Florida State and Texas. Results will be at Golfstat.com.

STARTING LINEUP
USC's starting lineup, for the eighth event in a row, features senior Katherine Muzi, sophomores Brianna Navarrosa and Michaela Morard and freshmen Xin (Cindy) Kou and Amari Avery. It will be the 14th start this season for Muzi, Navarrosa and Kou, the 11th for Morard and the 10th for Avery. Sophomore Christine Wang will be available as a sub as she was at the NCAA Regional.

Navarrosa is the only Trojan with NCAA experience having started in last year's championship.

The Trojans, under fourth-year head coach Justin Silverstein and third-year assistant coach Katie Mitchell, feature a young roster with just two upperclassmen returning - both seniors. The Trojans had to replace three All-Americans from the 2020-21 roster in Allisen Corpuz, Amelia Garvey and Alyaa Abdulghany not to mention Gabriela Ruffels, who turned pro before her senior season. Navarrosa is USC's leading returner in stroke average (74.08), top 11 finishes (three) and rounds in the 60s (four). Senior Malia Nam, the 2019 Pac-12 Freshman of the Year, is the Trojans' lone returning All-American on the squad, but she has yet to play this season due to injury.

USC'S NCAA CHAMPIONSHIPS HISTORY
* USC has won three NCAA titles in 2003, 2008 and 2013. USC is one of only five schools with at least three NCAA team titles. Arizona State has seven, Duke has six while USC, San Jose State and UCLA have three. The Trojans finished 21 strokes better than Duke in 2013 (the biggest margin at the NCAA Championships since Arizona won by the same amount in 2000), six strokes ahead of UCLA in 2008 and were 15 strokes better than second-place Pepperdine in 2003.
* This is USC's 34th overall NCAA Championship final appearance and 24th in a row, the longest active streak by far in the nation.
* The Trojans are also in their 30th straight NCAA appearance (reaching regionals and beyond).
* In addition to winning three titles, the Trojans have finished second five times (2014, 2012, 2010, 2006 and 1994) and also finished third in 2018, 2017 and 2015 (ties for third after semifinal losses in match play) as well as in 2009 and 1986, fourth in 2007, 2000 and 1987, fifth in 1993 and tied for fifth in 2011, 2016 and 2019 (the latter two in NCAA quarterfinal losses).
* USC had a national-best streak of 14 straight top 5 finishes snapped in 2021 (when it finished 23rd). USC's combined 20 NCAA top 5 finishes are the most nationally and are one ahead Arizona State, two better than Duke and three ahead of UCLA.
* USC made it to the NCAA Championships match play bracket in the first five years after it was instituted. Stanford is the only team to make it all six years.
* USC is 3-5 in the NCAA match play format since it started. It beat Washington in the quarterfinals in 2015 before falling to eventual champion Stanford. In 2016, USC fell to Duke in the quarterfinals. In 2017, USC defeated Ohio State in the quarters before losing to Northwestern in the semifinals, 3-2. In 2018, USC beat Duke, 3-1-1, and then lost to Alabama by the same score. In 2019, Troy fell, 3-2, to defending champion Arizona.
* USC's three match wins are tied for the fourth most in NCAA play.
* USC finished in the top 2 in the stroke play standings four years in a row (2012-2015) before a third in 2016. USC has finished in stroke play top 2 in five of the past 10 seasons, including the NCAA title in 2013 and a first in 2015 – the first season when the champion was decided in the match play format. It has also finished in the top 3 in stroke play in 10 of the past 12 seasons.
* The Trojans' second-place finishes in 2010 (Purdue, one stroke), 2012 (Alabama, one stroke) and 2014 (Duke, two strokes) were by a combined four strokes.
* USC has won five NCAA individual titles, including Jennifer Rosales in 1998, Mikaela Parmlid in 2003 (in a one-hole playoff), Dewi Claire Schreefel in 2006, Annie Park in 2013 and Doris Chen in 2014. The last school to post back-to-back individual titles was Duke in 2001-02. No school has won it three straight years and no player has won it twice.
* USC's five individual titles are second in the NCAA behind only Arizona State (six). In addition to its five individual champions, USC players have posted 10 other top five finishes. Jennifer Song (2009) was second, Paola Moreno (2007) tied for second, Irene Cho (2003), Candie Kung (2001) and Dana Arnold (1990) all tied for third, Jill McGill (1994) and Belen Mozo (2008) finished fourth, Rosales tied for fourth (1999) and Leila Chartrand (2000) and Song (2010) tied for fifth.
* The NCAA title in 2008 was USC's fourth consecutive tournament win at the time, a then-first in program history.
* USC had five All-Americans in 2008 for the first time in school history (Dewi Claire Schreefel, Paola Moreno, Belen Mozo, Stefanie Endstrasser, Lizette Salas) while all five of USC's finishers at the 2013 NCAAs finished in the top 17.
* Rosales was 9-under par after three rounds in 1998 while Park did the same in 2013, tying for the best score in NCAA Championship history through three rounds with two others.
* USC's best combined round at an NCAA Championships is 270 in the final round in 2014. That score – also a school record – shattered the recently set mark of 276, set in the second round in 2013.
* Troy's best individual round at an NCAA Championships is 65 by Sophia Popov, also carded in the 2014 NCAA Championships final round. The previous best was a 66, carded by Rosales during her title run in 1998.
* The Trojans finished at 19-under 1133 (284-276-285-288) in their 2013 win, shattering the previous NCAA Championship record for most strokes under par, which was previously four (UCLA, 2004).
* Four different Pac-12 teams have won the NCAA title in four of the last six seasons, including Arizona (2018), Arizona State (2017), Washington (2016) and Stanford (2015). Add USC in 2013 and UCLA in 2011, that's six different Pac-12-winning teams in the last 11 NCAA Championships. ASU also won it in 2009 and USC took it in 2008, giving the Pac-12 eight titles in the past 14 years.

Rankings
Freshman Amari Avery is ranked No. 3 (Golfweek) while senior Katherine Muzi is No. 44, sophomore Brianna Navarrosa is No. 67, freshman Xin (Cindy) Kou is No. 75 and sophomore Michaela Morard is No. 127.
Avery is ranked No. 15 in the World Amateur Golf Rankings while Kou is No. 113, Muzi is No. 123, Navarrosa No. 166.

2022 All-Pac-12 Trojans
Freshman Amari Avery was named to the 2022 All-Pac-12 Conference first team while senior Katherine Muzi and freshman Xin (Cindy) Kou were selected to the Pac-12 Honorable Mention team.

Amari Avery Ties For Fourth At Augusta National Women's Amateur
Freshman Amari Avery, during a freshman season in which she has opened with five straight top 8 finishes, maintained that success on one of the biggest stages in amateur golf, tying for fourth on April 2 during the final round of the Augusta National Women's Amateur. Avery, who debuted last year at the event but missed the cut by a stroke, finished in a three-way tie for fourth at 1-over 217 (73-72-72), just two strokes back of first. It was the fourth appearance by a Trojan in the Augusta National Women's Amateur final and the best finish, topping Allisen Corpuz's tie for 13th in 2021. Senior teammate Katherine Muzi also played this week, but missed the cut at 12-over.

Avery Named To 2022 Curtis Cup and Palmer Cup Teams
Amari Avery was named on to the eight-woman 2022 U.S. Curtis Cup team on April 15 that will compete in June. Avery will be making her debut in the event, one of three newcomers to the U.S. team. Recent Trojan graduate Allisen Corpuz competed on the 2021 team that won the the 41st Curtis Cup Match. Overall, seven USC golfers have played in the Curtis Cup, all for the U.S. side.

Avery was then announced on April 19 as an automatic selection to the 2022 Arnold Palmer Cup, the fourth straight year at least one Trojan has played in the cup. The event is scheduled for July 1-3 at the Golf Club de Genève July 1-3 in Switzerland. Corpuz played in the 2021 edition for the U.S. as well as in 2020 along with fellow Trojans Alyaa Abdulghany and Gabriela Ruffels, who were members of the international side. Current senior Malia Nam joined Jennifer Chang on the U.S. team in 2019.

Amari Avery Named ANNIKA Award Finalist
Amari was named a 2022 ANNIKA Award finalist, following Allisen Corpuz in 2021 and Jennifer Chang in 2019.

Recent Record-Breaking Results
The Trojans posted one of their best regular-season performances in program history by combining for a school-record 39-under par — led by winning freshman Amari Avery's 15-under and fellow freshman Xin (Cindy) Kou's third-place 13-under — to capture the Icon Invitational on Feb. 22 at the Golf Club of Houston.

The Trojans nailed down their first tournament victory of the season at 39-under 825 (270-281-274) for a 15-stroke victory, following their school-record 18-under opening round with a final-round 14-under, tied for the fourth-best round in program history.

Avery, the spring semester enrollee in just her second stroke play tournament in college, won her first college hardware at 15-under 201 (65-71-65), clinching her one-stroke win with a short par on 18 after seven birdies on the day.

Her 15-under tied the USC record for most under par in a 54-hole event, previously owned alone by Trojan 2006 NCAA champion Dewi Claire Schreefel, who set the mark in 2007. Avery, who had only two bogeys all tournament, is also the first Trojan to post a pair of 65s in one tournament.

Kou, barely outdone, tied for third at 13-under 203 (68-68-67), her third top 5 finish this season and also with only two bogeys.

USC followed that with another record-setting performance, winning The Gold Rush by a school-record 36 strokes, two better than the same event a year earlier. USC won at 1-under 863 (288-289-286), defending its title here and winning The Gold Rush for the third time.

Avery became the first Trojan to win back-to-back events in nine years and led a starting five that all finished in the top 8. She won with a 5-under 211 (69-74-68), becoming the first Trojan - and the first USC freshman - since Annie Park to win twice in a row. Park, like Avery, was a spring semester freshman enrollee when she finished the 2013 season by winning the Pac-12, NCAA Regional and NCAA Championships.

Senior Katherine Muzi posted her second-best finish as a Trojan by taking second at 1-over 217 (70-75-72) while freshman Xin (Cindy) Kou locked up her fourth top 5 of the year in fourth at 3-over 219 (73-74-72).

Player Highlights
* Freshman Amari Avery is off to an amazing start to her Trojan career. She has posted three wins, a tie for second, a tie for fifth, a tie for sixth and a tie for eighth among her first eight stroke-play starts and a tie for 18th in her seventh.
* Her three wins this season are tied with Sophia Popov for fourth on USC's season-chart behind NCAA winners Annie Park (2013) and Mikaela Parmlid (2003) and All-American Irene Cho (2006), all of whom had four. Park and Parmlid's fourth wins were at NCAAs.
* Avery has 7 top 10s (technically top 8s) in 8 stroke play events and is tied for sixth on USC's all-time season list, 2 off record shared by LPGA stars Lizette Salas, Jennifer Song and Candie Kung.
* Her stroke average is 71.04 through 24 rounds, which is under the USC season record. She leads the team with 10 rounds in the 60s, tied for second-most in a season at USC with Annie Park and one back of Kyung Kim, both set in 2014. Park had 36 rounds that season, Kim 35.
* Avery's 10 rounds in the 60s actually already puts her in our all-time career top 15, tied for 13th.
She has 13 rounds under par and 14 of par or better.
* Avery won her first college hardware at 15-under 201 (65-71-65) at the Icon Invitational, clinching her one-stroke win with a short par on 18 after seven birdies on the day. Her 15-under tied the USC record for most under par in a 54-hole event and she is the first Trojan to post a pair of 65s in one tournament.
* She won at The Gold Rush at 5-under 211 (69-74-68) for her second straight crown.
* Avery captured her third win at the NCAA Stanford Regional at 9-under 204 (69-67-68). She built a three-stroke final-round lead before finishing with a one-stroke win over Stanford's top-ranked Rose Zhang.
* Avery, who tied for fifth at the Pac-12 Championships, was named Pac-12 Golfer of the Month for February.
* Her five top 8s in a row to start her season is the best freshman start in at least two decades and complements Kou's four top 15s to start her season in the fall.

* Freshman Xin (Cindy) Kou is second on the team lead with seven rounds under 70 this year, good for a tie for fifth on USC's all-time season chart. She has 10 rounds under par and is tied for second on the team with 14 rounds of par or better.
* She is fourth on the team with a 73.81 stroke average. Her 13-under at the Icon Invitational is tied for the third-best total in school history.
* Kou has four top 5 finishes, five top 10s and six top 15 results in 11 starts.
* Kou showed no signs of freshman jitters in her debut tournament as a Trojan, taking third at 8-under 208 (68-73-67). It was the most under par in a USC opener since Malia Nam, also as a freshman, took second at the same event at 12-under on Sept. 19, 2018.
* Kou was just the third Trojan freshman in over 20 years to record four straight top 15s to start the season, following Nam in fall 2018 and Jennifer Song in the fall 2008. She is just the sixth Trojan overall in more than 20 years to post at least four rounds in the 60s in her first 3 events, joining Nam (five, 2019), Karen Chung (4, 2016), Annie Park (four, 2015), Kyung Kim (five, 2014), and Song (five, 2010).

* Senior Katherine Muzi is having the best season of her Trojan career. She boasts a stroke average of 73.36, second-best on the team, and has a team-high 12 rounds under par while also boasting a team-best 16 rounds of par or better.
* She is third on the squad with four rounds under 70.
* Including her win at the Pac-12 Preview, Muzi has five top 12 finishes, which also includes a second at The Gold Rush, and seven Top 20s.
* Muzi was the Pac-12 Golfer of the Month for November after closing the fall by winning the Pac-12 Preview by one stroke at 9-under 210 (68-71-71), securing the title with a birdie on the final hole. Her win came one event after she posted a then-career-best 10th-place effort at the Stanford Intercollegiate.
* She joined teammate Amari Avery as a participant in the 2022 August National Women's Amateur.

* Sophomore Brianna Navarrosa is on a roll, posting a season-best third at the NCAA Regional Championship at 7-under 206 (70-68-68) after a tie for 13th at the Pac-12 Championship. She has six top 16 finishes and nine in the top 24 to go with 11 top 20s for her career.
* Her stroke average of 73.64 is third-best on the team. She has nine rounds under par and 12 of par or better.
* She posted a tie for eighth at The Gold Rush, tied for 10th at the Stanford Intercollegiate at 2-under 211 (70-70-71) and was 11th at the Lamkin Invitational.

* Sophomore Michael Morard has come on strong this spring and had a recent stretch of improving in four straight events, highlighted by a tie for eighth at The Gold Rush following a tie for 11th at the Icon Invitational.
* Morard, with seven top 30 results, just posted a season-best sixth at the 2022 NCAA Stanford Regional at 3-under 210 (70-71-69).
* She has a stroke average of 74.27 with 10 rounds of par or better.

Team Notes
* USC's two-event win streak at the Icon Invitational and The Gold Rush is its first since winning the Silverado Showdown and Pac-12 Championship last April.

* Justin Silverstein has now led the Trojans to 17 wins in his three-plus years as Head Coach, including two Pac-12 titles and two NCAA Regional wins.

* Amari Avery is the first Trojan to win twice in a season since Allisen Corpuz did it last year.

* USC has won three or more tournaments in each season since 2012-13 (not counting the Covid-shortened 2019-2020 season.

* USC has won at least two tournaments in each season since 2009-10.

Fall Recap
USC posted a pair of top 5 finishes in four tournaments in fall action, closing with a second at the Pac-12 Preview in Hawaii. Freshman Xin (Cindy) Kou led the Trojans with a stroke average of 71.58, four rounds in the 60s (all 68s), top 10 finishes (three), top 15s (four), rounds under par (seven) and rounds of par or better (eight). Kou debuted with a third-place finish at the ANNIKA Invitational, followed it with a tie for fifth at the Windy City Collegiate, tied for 15th at the Stanford Intercollegiate and tied for 10th at the Pac-12 Preview.

Amari Avery Joins Trojans
Amari Avery, a four-time Rolex All-American and the No. 2 ranked prep senior in Golfweek's rankings, joins the Trojans as a 2022 spring semester freshman and will immediately compete for playing time. Avery, who is from Riverside, Calif., and was homeschooled, has already played on some of the game's biggest stages, including the 2021 Augusta National Women's Amateur and at the 2021 Women's U.S. Open. Her resume also includes medalist honors at the 2019 California Women's Amateur, a 3-0 record playing for the 2021 U.S. Junior Solheim Cup team and playing in the 2021 LPGA Founder's Cup.

Trojan Overview
USC is coming off of a five-win 2020-21 season, the third time in the last four seasons with at least that many victories and the eighth time in nine years with three or more wins.

The Trojans kicked off the 2020-21 season with a dominating 26-stroke win at the Lamkin San Diego Invitational, followed it with a four-stroke win at the Sun Devil Winter Classic against an all Pac-12 field and next won The Gold Rush by 34 strokes. USC closed the regular-season with win No. 4 at the Silverado Showdown, a five-stroke come-from-behind victory and then opened the post-season with a wire-to-wire Pac-12 title, winning by five strokes. Fifth-year senior Allisen Corpuz won at Lamkin and The Gold Rush and posted four other top fours.

Trojan Vets
USC brings back a lot of talent in its five returners, including two - Malia Nam and Brianna Navarrosa - who played in the 2021 Augusta National Women's Amateur.

Navarrosa posted four top 20 finishes, highlighted by a career-best second at the Fresno State Classic at 10-under 206 (68-70-68). She tied for 20th at the Pac-12 Championships, bouncing back from an opening 80 with a 69 and a 73.

Nam posted a pair of third-place finishes - one at the 2021 Pac-12 Championships - among three top 18s. She had three rounds in the 60s.

Katherine Muzi saw action in five events as a junior, registering two top 16 finishes, including a seventh at the Lamkin San Diego Invitational.

Christine Wang, as a true freshman, played in two events, while sophomore Olivia Yun did not see action last year.

Trojan Newcomers
USC has three freshmen this year in Rolex All-Americans Xin (Cindy), Kou Jiarui (Joyce) Jin - both from Beijing before moving to the states - and spring semester addition Amari Avery as well as sophomore transfer and fellow Rolex All-American Michaela Morard (she played at Alabama as a true freshman).

Kou, a 2020 AJGA Rolex first teamer ranked third nationally, has won 11 career AJGA events, tied for seventh most all time among female golfers. Jin has dominated the Southern California Junior PGA Tour since 2017, winning eight tournaments among 15 top 3 finishes. Avery was a four-time Rolex All-American and the No. 2 ranked prep senior in Golfweek's rankings. Morard represented the U.S. at the 2019 Junior Solheim Cup (where she teamed with her new teammates Navarrosa and Wang), the 2019 Toyota Junior World Cup and at the 2018 World Junior Girls. She is also a two-time AJGA Wyndham Cup team member. She also played in the 2021 Augusta National Women's Amateur.

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Players Mentioned

Alyaa Abdulghany

Amari Avery

Allisen Corpuz

Amelia Garvey

Jiarui (Joyce) Jin

Xin (Cindy) Kou

Michaela Morard

Katherine Muzi

Malia Nam

Brianna Navarrosa

Christine Wang

Olivia Yun