THE RUNDOWN
No. 2 DBU Women's Golf swept the NCAA Division II National Championship final against No. 3 Anderson to claim the 2026 national title at PGA National Resort in Palm Beach Gardens, Florida. The No. 2 player in the country, Ella Cheek, had the honor of sinking the team's final putt of the season, clinching back-to-back national championships for the Patriots.
 
It was almost pure domination from the first tee for the five all-conference starters for DBU. Four of the five Patriots held a lead at the turn, the largest belonging to Cheek at nine strokes. All-American Madison Ude was the exception of the five, but she kept the deficit at just one stroke against Kennedy Gooding.
 
Much like their quarterfinal match versus No. 9 Tampa, the Patriots separated themselves from the Trojans on the back nine. Sidney Robertson took a one-stroke advantage going out and extended it to as many as five versus Aly Francis to claim the first point of the day. Up by three through nine, Gracie Grant, the 2025 Lone Star Conference Player of the Year, outscored Olivia Roberts by 10 strokes to win the match by 13. Meanwhile, Chloe Sirkin held steady on the back half of The Champion course, carding seven consecutive pars to take her match with Olivia Pellerin.
 
With three points claimed, All-Americans Madison Ude and Ella Cheek completed the five-point victory for DBU. Down by one through 16, Ude flipped her match with Gooding. The junior from Keller, Texas, drained a par putt on 17 to go up by one and repeated the result on 18 to seal a three-stroke win. With a national title in hand, Cheek rode the momentum of five straight pars on 13 through 17, birdieing the last hole of the season for the Patriots' fourth national championship in the last six years.
 
THREE THINGS YOU NEED TO KNOW
- DBU is the first school to repeat as NCAA Division II national champions since Lynn in 2013-14. The Patriots are the first squad to go back-to-back across all three divisions since Rhodes took the Division III titles in 2016 and 2017.
- DBU's four national championships are the most by a school in a six-year stretch since Rollins won five in 2003-08.
- The Patriots have won the most national titles since the Division II National Championship medal play format was changed to match play in 2019.
 
INSIDE THE NUMBERS
4 - The Patriots' four national championships tie them with Florida Southern and Nova Southeastern for the second-most in Division II.
10 - With a seventh-place finish in stroke play, Ella Cheek finished in the top 10 of all 13 stroke-play events this season.
98 - DBU's fourth national title is the 98th career tournament victory of Head Coach Kenny Trapp, the winningest coach in the history of Division II women's golf.