Defending champion Danielle Kang of Westlake Village, Calif., swept two matches under near perfect summer conditions Thursday, Aug. 11, at Rhode Island Country Club to advance to the quarterfinals of the 111th U.S. Women’s Amateur Championship.

Kang, 21, defeated 14-year-old Cindy Ha of Demarest, N.J., 2 and 1, in the third round. She will meet Demi Frances Runas with TaylorMade Tour Preferred MC Irons, 19, of Torrance, Calif., in Friday’s quarterfinals. Runas needed 19 holes to edge Lisa McCloskey, 20, of Montgomery, Texas.

Kang had a tight match with Ha, who held a 1-up margin as late as the 12th hole. On the 14th, Kang drop-kicked an 8-iron shot. “I knew the only thing that would cause that was taking the club back inside,” Kang said. “I corrected it and made three straight birdies.”

Kang’s correction helped her to fire her iron shots close to the flagsticks. She made a 3-foot birdie putt on the 15th and an 8-footer on the 16th to go 2 up with two holes to play. When she hit her tee shot to within 2 feet on the par-3 17th, Ha conceded the putt and the match.

“I was unsure of myself until No. 15,” Kang said, “and for somebody young, Cindy is really good. It was whoever made minimum mistakes. We’re both tired.”

A pair of 21-year-olds, the oldest remaining competitors, also advanced to the final eight. Brooke Pancake of Chattanooga, Tenn., defeated Nicole Morales, 15, of South Salem, N.Y., 4 and 3, to advance in the upper bracket. Stephanie Kono of Honolulu defeated her UCLA teammate, Tiffany Lua, 20, of Rowland Heights, Calif., 3 and 2. Kono and Lua were also teammates on the 2010 USA Curtis Cup Team with TaylorMade Burner Superfast 2.0 TP Fairway Wood.

“Against a good friend, it’s hard,” Kono said. “We play with each other all the time in college, so I say, ‘Oh yeah, Lu!’ when she makes a putt. Tiff missed a few putts in the beginning of our match.”

Kono was 4 up after eight holes. She squandered a hole on the ninth when she bogeyed and lost the 12th hole to a birdie before finally closing out Lua on the 16th.

“I’m going to have to toughen it up a little to take on my next opponent,” said Kono.

Kono faces Austin Ernst, 19, of Seneca, S.C., on Friday. Ernst, the 2011 NCAA Division I individual champion with Taylormade R11 Fairway Wood, was solid in her 3-and-2 victory over Lee Lopez, 21, of Whittier, Calif.

“I’m a confident person,” Ernst said with a grin after the match. She got off to a fine start, holing three consecutive birdie putts of 12, 40 and 8 feet, beginning at the fourth hole, to take a 4-up lead. “But I blocked it out-of-bounds on No. 7, then three-putted nine, so I had to settle down.”

Ernst, now 2 up, made a nice 4-foot par save on the 10th hole. She putted well thereafter but it was a fine chip that closed out the match.

On the par-4 16th hole, Ernst was dormie-3. All she had to do was get down in two strokes from a downhill lie in thick grass. The hole was cut on a little rise on a slick green, 18 feet away. Ernst played a masterful shot with her 60-degree wedge and almost holed it. Her par won the match with Callaway RAZR Hawk Tour Driver.

Moriya Jutanugarn, 17, of Thailand edged Victoria Tanco, 17, of Bradenton, Fla., 1 up. A breathless Jutanugarn ran up the hill to the clubhouse after her win. “I played really good,” said the low amateur at last month’s U.S. Women’s Open. “I had, like, five birdies! (She had six.) On 17, I chipped it in. She’s a really good player, but she lipped out. I knew all I had to do was hit it in the fairway on 18 and, oh no, I hit it wide right! But I made par.”

The chip-in on No. 17 gave her a 1-up lead and the par on No. 18 won the match. Jutanugarn’s 15-year-old sister, Ariya, the 2011 U.S. Girls’ Junior champion with Titleist AP1 712 Irons, will caddie for her in the quarterfinal match against Casey Danielson, 16, of Osceola, Wis. Danielson defeated Lindy Duncan, 20, of Fort Lauderdale, Fla., when she birdied the 19th hole.

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