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Baylor Women's Golf Falls Short, Finishes 2nd in NCAA Tournament

Baylor fell literally millimeters short of a second national championship in the 2014-2015 season as Stanford won the tournament. Hayley Davis's Baylor career is over, but four starters return.

By ConnerSaurusRex

I feel sad. I know I shouldn't but you can't help it when you get this close. The good news comes first.

Baylor has only been to the NCAA National Championship Tournament three times in school history. In 2015, the program won its first Big 12 title, its first NCAA regional, and entered the postseason as a No. 18 seed that was expected to be competitive, but not nearly this competitive.

The only reason the Lady Bears were even in the final was due to the heroics of freshman Lauren Whyte of St. Andrews, Scotland. Whyte took her opponent through six sudden death extra rounds for an incredible win that lifted Baylor over defending champion and No. 2 seed Duke on Tuesday. On Wednesday against Stanford, however, it was the Hayley Davis show- sadly, the senior was unable to complete the miracle after a decorated Baylor career.

Baylor's Dylan Kim and Giovana Maymon won their rounds comfortably, while Whyte and Laura Lonardi lagged behind and lost. Davis and Stanford's Mariah Stackhouse were the last players on the course.

Things got too close for comfort on the 16th hole where Davis made an incredible comeback shot from a hazard to maintain her two stroke lead:

<blockquote class="twitter-video" lang="en"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">Hayley Davis with an incredible shot. She&#39;ll have this putt to go 2-up. &#10;&#10;<a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/SicEm?src=hash">#SicEm</a> <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/NCAAGolf?src=hash">#NCAAGolf</a> <a href="http://t.co/U9mCt4EGsG">pic.twitter.com/U9mCt4EGsG</a></p>&mdash; Baylor Women&#39;s Golf (@BaylorWGolf) <a href="https://twitter.com/BaylorWGolf/status/603693650418278400">May 27, 2015</a></blockquote>

<script async src="//platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>

Stackhouse wasn't done, and took the 17th after Davis missed a would-be tourney winner from eight feet, sending the competition to the eighteenth hole, which Davis struggled with throughout the competition. The 18th didn't begin auspiciously; Davis ended up in a sand trap while Stackhouse was comfortable on the fairway. Shortly afterwards, Stackhouse took the 18th to take the match to extra holes.

The momentum had swung in Stackhouse's favor by that point. An incredible second shot in the first extra hole gave the Stanford player superior putting position, and Davis missed from within feet on what would and probably should have been the tying put. And then it was over.

As I said at the beginning, it's easy and reasonable to feel disappointed, but there is much to be proud of. Like many of Baylor's programs, this one was dead in the water when Ian McCaw arrived, and now it's pushing the envelope. Four of five starters return for next season, making Baylor an early favorite for a deep postseason run in 2016. Coach Goble has created a powerhouse overnight.

To Hayley Davis- thank you. You've been a joy to cover in my time writing the Daily Bears Report, and I think I speak for the rest of the blog and Baylor Nation as a whole when I say that we wish you all the best and will remember your name for a long time for what you've done for the program. You should be proud.

Congrats to Stanford. To Baylor: the best is yet to come.

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