CARLSBAD — For Oceanside twins Jasmine and Janae Leovao, Tuesday’s NCAA Women’s Golf Championship semifinals felt less like a road trip and more like a homecoming.
Competing just down the road from where they starred at El Camino High School, the sisters helped lead Eastern Michigan University on an unlikely postseason run that ended one step short of the national championship match at Omni La Costa Resort & Spa in Carlsbad.
“The biggest crowd I’ve ever seen, I’m just so thankful,” Jasmine said. “Being close means a lot.”
Both sisters were standout golfers at El Camino High School in Oceanside, where they built decorated junior and prep careers before continuing on the national collegiate stage.
Janae Leovao was a four-time first-team All-CIF selection, winning back-to-back Avocado East League championships as a freshman and sophomore. She added multiple top-five finishes on the junior circuit in 2020, along with victories at the PAR BAR Junior Championship and the Charley Hoffman Foundation Junior Championship, and graduated with honors.
Jasmine Leovao also earned four-time first-team All-CIF honors and built an equally decorated prep résumé. She won the Avocado East League individual title as a freshman, was named league Player of the Year as a sophomore, and added a second league championship in the New Coastal League.
Jasmine placed fourth at the CIF State Championship in 2021, recorded two junior circuit wins in 2020, and also graduated with honors.
The sisters went on to compete at Long Beach State University before transferring together to EMU.
Eastern Michigan, the No. 5 seed, reached the NCAA semifinals in its first-ever appearance in match play after upsetting No. 4 Texas 3.5-1.5 in the quarterfinals before falling 5-0 to top-seeded Stanford to finish tied for third nationally.
The defining stretch of the Eagles’ run came against Texas. Janae Leovao, ranked No. 55 in the match-play field, delivered one of the tournament’s biggest results by defeating No. 1 Farah O’Keefe, swinging momentum firmly toward EMU. Moments later, Jasmine closed her match with a birdie on the 18th hole, securing both her point and the clinching team victory that sent the Eagles into the semifinals.
“I’m so proud of this team, nobody thought we’d make it here but we kept believing ourselves and that’s what we did,” Jasmine said. “I’m just so happy I made that putt and to keep going on.”
EMU head coach Josh Brewer said the moment captured the emotional peak of the season.
“I am excited for our finish and our season,” Brewer said. “This tournament is exhausting. It’s been a long week. I’m okay with the fact we got beaten by a team that, on paper, is better than us, so I can live with that. It’s disappointing, but it’s one of those things that 20 years from now, when you walk through the university and there’s a picture of us up there holding a semifinal trophy in women’s golf, you know it’s pretty special. You’d like to think you might be holding a different trophy, but at the end of the day, it might be as good as it ever gets. So, you just got to enjoy it.”
Brewer added that the quarterfinal finish carried extra meaning for one moment in particular.
“I’m super proud of this team,” he said. “Our quarterfinal win and the celebration on 18, it was more for Jasmine… for her to hit that putt in front of all these people was amazing.”
He added, “We knew we could still do it, and it was magical.”
Brewer also summed up the program’s breakthrough in simpler terms: “Don’t wake me up. The stuff out of storybooks.”
Eastern Michigan’s run ended in the semifinals against top-ranked Stanford, which swept all five matches behind a lineup loaded with top-10 talent. Jasmine fell 2&1 to No. 4 Andrea Revuelta, while Janae dropped a 1-up decision to No. 2 Paula Martin Sampedro in tightly contested matches
