Boraas, Kuznik, Reineke and Petzold Still Remain at MGA Women's Match Play

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  HASTINGS, Minn. – Through the first 33 holes of her title defense at the 2024 Minnesota Golf Association Women’s Amateur Match Play Championship at Hastings Golf Club, Montana State University golfer Hannah Boraas has trailed for just one.

The former Alexandria High School standout earned two victories over Kathryn Reeves and Kathryn VanArragon Tuesday to advance to the semifinal round early Wednesday.

Facing Katie Reeves to open the match play portion of the championship Tuesday, Boraas used a steady back nine to pull away from Reeves, making birdie at the par-5 16th to clinch her opening-round match, 4 and 2.

Squaring off against Kathryn VanArragon, last seasons’ MGA Women’s Amateur and Minnesota Women’s State Open champion, Boraas fell behind early with a bogey at the first, but carded eight consecutive pars to close out the front nine with the lead, 3-up.

VanArragon climbed her way within one, but Boraas won the 16th and closed out the match at the 17th to reach the semifinals for a second consecutive season, 2 and 1.

Boraas claimed the first state victory of her career last season by defeating Madi Hicks in the finals at St. Cloud Country Club, 1-up. She will face University of Wisconsin golfer and two-time Minnesota State Junior Girls’ champion Camille Kuznik during the semifinal round Wednesday.

Kuznik, whose most recent state win came in 2022 at the MGA Women’s Amateur Four-Ball Championship with partner Aayushi Sarkar at Monticello Country Club, went up early during her match against St. Catherine golfer Kyra Venne and held on for the victory, 3 and 1.

Facing Minnesota State University-Mankato’s Samantha Youngquist in the quarterfinals, a steady Kuznik carded nine consecutive pars to take a 4-up lead to her back nine.

Youngquist struck back by winning the 14th, but Kuznik closed the door to the match by rolling in her birdie chance from 25 feet at the par-3 15th to advance to the semifinals, 4 and 3.

“Today, I tried to play low shots because of how windy it was,” Kuznik said. “I finally learned to not play as much break on the greens—started seeing my reads and making a lot of putts. Better feel for the course today for sure.

“I’ve been focusing a lot on my short game recently, so it was nice to see that come through and make so many putts.”

University of St. Thomas golfer Nicole Reineke used a pair of birdies during her quarterfinal match against Xavier University’s Emma Welch to take control of the match on her way to the victory, 3 and 2.

“It was a bit of a transition going from stroke play to match play,” Reineke said Tuesday. “You do play a little differently, so it takes a few holes to get used to it.

“My approaches have been good and I made some nice putts. A little shaky off the tee, but pretty good around the green so far. I had a couple nice punchouts and was able to get up-and-down from there.”

Making her first appearance at the event this week, Reineke fired an even par 72 Monday to earn medalist honors and the No. 2 seed.

She opened match play by carding a pair of birdies over the final four holes to pull away from University of Nebraska-Omaha’s Maddie Simon, 4 and 3, and will now face St. Catherine’s Grace Petzold when the tournament resumes early Wednesday.

Petzold, who fell during the Round of 16 a year ago, trailed most of the front nine during her opening match against the University of Sioux Falls’ Abby Ritzer before back-to-back birdies gave her control of the match after the 12th.

She’d close out the match with her third birdie of the round at the 15th to win, 5 and 4. A late birdie at the par-3 17th helped Petzold escape her quarterfinal match against Tommie golfer Isabelle Lynch, 3 and 1.

The semifinal round of the 2024 MGA Women’s Amateur Match Play Championship gets underway at 7:30 a.m. Wednesday at Hastings Golf Club.