By Steve Derderian
sderderian@massgolf.org
SOUTH HADLEY, Massachusetts (July 22, 2026) — After winning stroke play by nine shots the past two days, Maddie Smith (Mount Pleasant Golf Club) discovered Wednesday how a couple days of sharp shooting can quickly turn into walking a tightrope.
The runaway medalist and two-time winner trailed in both of her matches, rallied from two down in the morning and needed extra holes in the afternoon, but emerged from a day of close calls as one of four players advancing to the semifinals of the 93rd Massachusetts Girls’ Junior Amateur Championship Powered by KOHR Golf.
Memphis-bound Smith will be joined Thursday by Longmeadow High School graduate Cecily Henshon (Longmeadow Country Club), as well as Adriana Eaton (KOHR Golf) and Maddie Chang (Youth on Course/Mass Golf), who both advanced to the semifinals after coming up one match short last year at Crumpin-Fox.
“I definitely battled well today,” said Smith, who on Thursday will have the opportunity to join Angela Garvin, Alice Belanger, Joanne Goodwin, and Ruthann Donahue, as three-time champions in this event.
“I didn’t really want to get involved in where I stood in the match. I wanted to stay focused on the next shot, and it ended up working out for me.”
Smith began the day by dropping the second and third holes against Weston’s Sophie Chong (Nashawtuc Country Club) but quickly steadied herself, winning the next three and adding birdies on Nos. 10, 11 and 13, and making a lengthy birdie putt on the 16th to close it out.
Her quarterfinal against Middlesex School standout Olivia Zhang proved considerably more precarious. Smith remained 1-down through 14 before birdieing the two short par-4s to move ahead. Zhang answered on the 18th, narrowly missing an eagle before Smith’s attempt to get up and down from the greenside bunker came up short.
Returning to the par-5 10th, Smith faced an uncomfortable 56-yard approach but controlled her wedge which kicked forward off the fringe and left about 3 feet for the winning birdie.
“I got the number and I didn’t love it,” Smith said. “60 is a number I really like, so I was trying to hit that 60-yard shot, hoping it hit the bank and stopped. Thankfully, it did.”
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Awaiting Smith is Henshon, who spent much of Wednesday playing from behind, but relied on past experiences from high school matches to know where to attack the course, especially on its back-to-back short par-4s (15 and 16). She overcame an early two-hole deficit to defeat Scituate’s Alyssa Paine, 1 up, in the Round of 16, then trailed Ryley Regan (Orchards Golf Club) by three after nine holes in an all-Western Massachusetts quarterfinal.
Despite that, Henshon continued finding greens and gradually erased the deficit, tying the match with a birdie on No. 15. Regan, who needed 22 holes to close out her morning match, found herself scrambling for pars down the stretch, and Henshon was able to take advantage.
“I just stayed in it and tried to win one hole at a time,” said Henshon, sporting a Deerfield Academy cap where she’ll attend for a postgrad year. “A lot of people say that, but that’s what I was trying to do. I think the last four are pretty good holes where a lot can happen, so I like playing those.”
After losing on the 18th in last year’s quarterfinal, Eaton finished both her matches without even reaching No. 17, as the three-time RIIL state champion needed to play just 30 holes combined Wednesday to be the first to step into the semifinals.
“I really love this event,” said Eaton, a Providence native who chose one final run at a junior title over competing in the Rhode Island Women’s Amateur, despite being a former medalist.
Despite seeing Ledges for the first time Monday, Eaton has quickly taken to its shot variety, particularly an exacting early stretch featuring the narrow 2nd, the wedge-in par-3 (106 yards) and a 4th hole pinched by out-of-bounds right and water left. She took full advantage of this section, playing the front nine in 34 during the morning round, then winning the first three holes of her afternoon match.
Chang completed the semifinal quartet by edging out Sophie Redmond, 1 up, and rallying past fellow 14-year-old Skylar Kotzen (Belmont Country Club). Two down through eight in the afternoon, Chang seized control by winning five consecutive holes, then arrived at the tantalizing 249-yard 16th with a chance to finish it. Knowing Kotzen possessed the length to drive the green herself, Chang abandoned any thought of laying up and reached the putting surface off the tee for the first time all week, nestling her eagle attempt close enough to end the match.
“I feel relieved,” Chang said afterward. “It was a long day today, and both of my competitors were really good. It was they were close matches.”
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1-Maddie Smith def. 8-Olivia Zhang, 19 holes
Smith (Mount Pleasant Golf Club) hit a wedge from 56 yards to about 3 feet and made the birdie putt on the par-5 10th to stave off a valient effort by Zhang, an all-NEPSAC standout from Middlesex School. Smith, a Memphis commit, was 1-down through 14, but made birdie on both short par 4s to take the lead. On the 18th, Smith’s approach found the greenside bunker, while Zhang was on in two. She nearly made her eagle and got a conceded birdie, and Smith missed her birdie bid to bring it into extra holes.
4-Cecily Henshon def. 5-Ryley Regan, 2&1
In a duel between Western Mass standouts and members of Team Massachusetts, Regan (Orchards Golf Club) had the edge early on, shooting 1-under-par 35 on the front nine to take a 3-up lead. Henshon (Longmeadow Country Club), however, kept the pressure on by continuing to hit the green in regulation. She tied the match with a birdie on the par-4 15th and was on in two again on the 16th and 17th as Regan found herself scrambling.
7-Adriana Eaton def. 15-Callie Crean, 3&2
Eaton never trailed in her quarterfinal match, winning the first three holes and making birdie on the par-5 5th to take a 4-up lead over Crean, a Hingham High School standout. Crean reduced it to 1-up by making birdie on the par-5 10th, but Eaton shot even par up until the 16th when she closed it out with a birdie and clinched her first spot in the semifinals.
11-Maddie Chang def. 3-Skylar Kotzen, 3&2
Chang drove the green on 249-yard, par-4 16th and nestled her eagle putt in closely to advance to the semifinals for the first time. Though Kotzen took a 2-up lead through eight, Chang won the next five holes, sparked by birdies on Nos. 9 and 11, to wrestle away control of the match. Kotzen (Belmont Country Club) won the first hole of the match and made birdie on Nos. 7 & 8 to take the lead.
1-Maddie Smith def. 16-Sophie Chong, 3&2
Despite losing both the 2nd and 3rd holes, Smith (Mount Pleasant Golf Club) rallied by winning the next three holes and birdied Nos. 10, 11 and 13 to take a 3-up lead. She then won the match with a 12-foot putt on the 16th. Chong, who played for Mass Golf on the Girls’ Junior Inter-City Team, made birdie on the par-3 7th and was tied going to the back nine.
8-Olivia Zhang def. 9-Reva Machanavajhula, 3&2
Zhang, who grew up in Vancouver and now attends Middlesex School, never trailed in her victory over Machanavajhula, a three-time winner of this event in the now-retired Junior-Mite Division. Leading 2-up on the 15th tee, Zhang made a 10-footer for birdie to bring the match dormie and knocked home a par on the 16th to end it.
4-Cecily Henshon def. 13-Alyssa Paine, 1-up
Henshon (Longmeadow Country Club) overcame an early 2-down deficit, tying the match four times before taking the lead for the first time on the par-4 16th with a 12-foot birdie putt from the back of the green. Paine, of Scituate High School, nearly matched with an up-and-down from the bunker, but her putt hit the edge. She also narrowly missed a putt on the 17th and they tied the 18th to end it.
5-Ryley Regan def. 12-Chloe Zhang, 22 holes
In the longest match of the morning, Regan (Orchards Golf Club) knocked down a 20-foot putt from the front of the 4th green to defeat Zhang, an AJGA competitor from New Jersey. Regan, 15, who made her Mass Women’s Amateur debut at her home club in 2022, at age 11 made a birdie putt from similar length on the par-5 18th to extend the match into extra holes.
15-Callie Crean def. 2-Hazel Hegstrom, 3&2
Hingham High School standout Crean made consecutive birdie putts on the 15th and 16th to close out her match against 13-year-old standout Hegstrom, from Providence. Crean took her first lead with a birdie on the par-3 7th, but Hegstrom tied it on the 10th.
7-Adriana Eaton def. 10-Meiran Yang, 6&4
Eaton, a former Rhode Island Women’s Amateur medalist, made birdie on holes 7 and 9 to take a 3-up lead and closed out Yang, the Milton Academy standout, with a par on the par-3 14th.
3-Skylar Kotzen def. 14-Riley Eames, 2-up
Kotzen (Belmont Country Club), co-runner-up in this year’s Mass Mixed Four-Ball, took a 4-up lead through eight holes, but Sandwich native Eames, a Bentley University commit, rallied by winning the par-3 14th with a birdie. Kotzen, however, pulled ahead with a birdie on the 16th and was just short of reaching the 18th green in two, clinching the match with a conceded birdie putt.
11-Maddie Chang def. 6-Sophie Redmond, 1-up
Chang (New York) shot even-par 36 on the front nine, and though Redmond (Concord, MA) won holes 9-12 to take a 2-up lead, Chang tied it with a birdie on the short par-4 15th and again with par on the 17th and was able to make birdie on the 18th to close it out.
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