Fourteen-year-old Mariah Stackhouse of Riverdale fell to a three-hole deficit within the first five holes but rallied to defeat Tyrone’s Erin Packer, 3 and 2, and successfully defend her title at the 11th annual Georgia Women’s Match Play Championship at Sunset Hills Country Club in Carrollton. In a rematch of last year’s final, Stackhouse led 2 up after 15 holes. She then connected on a 10-foot birdie putt at the 521-yard 16th hole to close the door on Packer. Stackhouse’s day began with trouble, as she pulled her opening drive out of bounds. Packer took advantage of her opponent’s slow start, winning three of the first five holes. Stackhouse, however, turned the corner at No. 7, a 350-yard par 4. The defending champ hit her approach to six feet and holed the birdie opportunity, her first of the day. “That’s when I straightened out my driver,†Stackhouse said of her performance at the seventh. “I wasn’t hitting it well at all up to that point, but I kept telling myself that I wasn’t going to give up on the club.†Stackhouse capitalized on Packer’s misfortunes at holes 8 and 9 as well and was able to bring the match back to all square at the turn. On No. 11, Packer found a fairway bunker and hit her second shot into the water hazard. Stackhouse’s subsequent birdie yielded the teenager her first lead of the day. At the 12th, Stackhouse missed a three-foot putt to put the match back to all square. A well-placed tee shot and a long two-putt by Stackhouse at the 164-yard 13th hole reclaimed her lead and she never looked back. Packer pushed her tee shot at 15 into the water and Stackhouse’s par took the hole before she clinched the match at the 16th. Packer advanced to the finals by defeating Mary Helen McElreath of Augusta, 3 and 2. She then defeated reigning GSGA Senior Women’s Player of the Year, Brenda Pictor of Marietta, in the quarterfinals, 5 and 4, and topped the current Women’s Player of the Year, Augusta’s Laura Coble, 1 up, in the semifinals. Stackhouse opened play with a 3-and-2 win over Claudeen Lindberg of Atlanta, then defeated Canton’s Tracy Marshall, 2 up, in the quarterfinals and fellow teenager Kendall Wright of Suwanee, 3 and 2, in the semifinals.