EAST LANSING, Mich. -- Shreya Ganta was in the middle of another impressive round at the NCAA Division III Women's Golf National Championships on Thursday afternoon when the scoreboard started to shrink. As the cut line was solidified due to action finished earlier in the day, Ganta found herself in danger of missing the cut despite one of the top 15 scores on the day. Tied for 28th and 25-over par for the tournament, she needed par or better on each of the last three holes and that's just what the Christopher Newport junior star did, forcing a playoff that she would go on to win and advance.

Ganta fired a six-over 78 in the third round and vaulted ten spots up the leaderboard. Her three-day total ran to 241 (85-78-78) and tied Jaycee Rhodes of St. Catherine University at +25. The two would return to the tee box on 18 for the sudden death playoff round and Ganta earned the bid to the finals by one stroke. 

Only 14 players scored better than Ganta on Thursday, but as she made the turn at +21, the cut was locked in at +25. Then came a run of four bogeys in five holes to see the Ashburn, Va. native slip back to 25-over and set up the heroic final three holes. 

First was the 305-yard Par 4 16th followed by the longest hole on the course, a 476-yard Par 5 for the 17th hole. Over the first two days, Ganta finished both holes at par in both rounds. In Thursday's decisive third round, she matched that performance with another 4-5 flourish. Then would come the 340-yard Par 4 18th hole; a hole that Ganta had bogeyed in each of the first two rounds. The 18th is playing as the toughest hole in the tournament this week with only 13 birdies recorded in 393 attempts by the field (3.3%). On the precipice of elimination, the CNU junior rallied for the Even par finish and forced the playoff. 

In the playoff, Ganta sank a bender of a putt from about eight feet to put the pressure on Rhodes to match. Her shot skirted just by the hole and earned CNU it's second individual cut in the short four-year history of the program. Teammate Erica Whitehouse also advanced to the final round for the Captains in her national championship appearance in 2019. 

After the thrilling finish, Ganta learned she will return to the course for the second-to-last tee time of the day on Friday. She will tee off from the 10th hole at 10:00 a.m. in the middle of a tight pack at the top of the leaderboard. While individual leader Makensie Toole (George Fox) is at the top at four-over par, second place Alexis Sudjianto (Carnegie Mellon) is next in line at +12. That mark is only 13 strokes ahead of Ganta in a four-way tie for 28th heading into the final round. 

Live scoring for all the action is available at Golfstat.com with links to the live stats here or on the women's golf page at CNUsports.com.