By F.W. Manning II

Special to The Pilot

Top seed Cydney Clanton and sixth seed Lisa McCloskey advanced through Friday's 108th Women's North and South Amateur semifinals, setting the stage for a Saturday 36-hole marquee championship match-up at Pinehurst No. 2.

In last year's tournament, McCloskey made it to the semifinals before falling 4 and 3 to Clanton. During that match Clanton had a double-eagle on the 482-yard par 5 fourth hole along with three birdies on the front nine. She also birdied the other three five pars, making her 6-under on the par-fives for the day.

"Being in the finals again this year is just awesome," Clanton said. "I definitely hit the ball better the last two days and putted a lot better. Seeing putts go in is always a confidence builder. Being here and staying in the moment is always good while trying my best not to think about what happened last year."

The Auburn University star and Curtis Cup team member held a 3-up lead through 22 holes in last year's final, but eventually finished as the runner-up to Amelia Lewis who won the title match 3 and 2.

Clanton, of Rockwell, N.C., defeated 12th seed Isabelle Lendl 4 and 3 to advance to the championship round for a second consecutive year. Lendl, the daughter of former tennis great Ivan Lendl, birdied the first hole to take her only lead of the match. Clanton squared the match with a birdie on the 340-yard, par-4 third hole.

After a pair of pars on the fourth hole, the ladies each birdied the 503-yard, par-5 fourth. However Clanton captured the lead with a par on the ensuing hole.

From there Clanton never looked back. Still clinging to a 1-up advantage at the turn, she won the long par-5 10th hole with a birdie. A 45-minute lightning delay followed, but she won two of the next four holes to close the match out on 15.

She felt the turning point of the match was the birdie she made on the 351-yard par-4 12th hole, after stiffing her approach shot with a wedge to six feet.

"Making that putt on 12, especially with it being a short one, was sort of like a make or break," Clanton said. "It's the sort of moment in match play where if you don't capitalize then it is almost like letting the door swing back open."

After winning 1-up in Wednesday's opening round, Clanton has been on cruise control earning 3 and 2, and 4 and 3 victories Thursday. She has recorded 16 birdies in her four matches leading into Saturday's final.

"Along with hitting lots of fairways and lots of greens," she said, "I've also been hitting my wedges really good on approach shots, which is nice. So I am having a lot of opportunities to make putts and a many of them have been shorter chances."

Clanton wasted little time setting the tone for the day, winning the first three holes of her quarterfinal match against Emma Lavy of Fayetteville, Ark. She soon saw her lead swell to 5-up through 10 holes before capping off the victory with six birdies en route to a 4 and 3 win.

Meanwhile, Lisa McCloskey, of Houston, Texas, won her semifinal match 2-up, against tenth seed Michelle Shin of Cape Coral, Fla.

McCloskey, who is transferring from Pepperdine to USC, is no stranger to the spotlight or success on the golf course. She shot a career-low competitive round of 63 at the U.S. Junior. She was the runner-up at this year's U.S Amateur Women's Public Links and finished first at her U.S. Women's Open qualifier, shooting 73-69.

She then went on to place 62nd at the 2010 Women's U.S. Open, recently contested at Oakmont Country Club near Pittsburgh making the cut with a two-day total of 150 (73-77)

Friday's second semifinal featured McCloskey and Atlantic Coast Conference individual champion Michelle Shin, of Wake Forest.

McCloskey carded four birdies in her match against Shin and held a 3-up lead after draining a 25-foot bomb for birdie on the 11th hole. Shin won the next hole, firing a dart with her approach shot up close on the 12th hole.

"Making that putt was big because it gave me some room to work with," McCloskey said of the one on 11. "When she answered back, I was still 2-up, so down the stretch I was able to just think about making pars, with maybe a birdie. Especially since the holes coming in aren't that easy in terms of offering birdie chances, except for the par-5 16th."

The players exchanged three pars in a row before Shin sank a 12-foot downhill putt for birdie on the 16th hole, forcing the match to 17. McCloskey then prevailed when Shin conceded a short putt for par.

"I was close last year and maybe I can get a little bit of revenge back," McCloskey said. "Cydney is a really good player though and she hits it really long, so that is a little bit intimidating, especially in match play."

"I feel like I have been playing pretty well here at Pinehurst. Coming from the Open at Oakmont last week, this course is dramatically different. The fairways are huge, so you cannot really get into too much trouble. You just have to put it down the fairway and put in on the greens, and because the greens are so receptive you don't have to place it that precisely out here."