Colorado University Athletics
Colorado
Bay Area Intercollegiate
Lee Co-Medalist At Bay Area Intercollegiate, Buffs Take Fourth
March 10, 2015 | Women's Golf
FAIRFAX, Calif. – Sophomore Esther Lee tied for medalist honors while leading the Buffaloes to a fourth place team finish at the Bay Area Intercollegiate on Tuesday.
Lee earned her first career title after shooting a school record 206 (67-67-72) in a 54-hole, par 71 tournament. She shattered the previous record by 16 strokes, set in 2013 by Jenny Coleman.
“It feels really good,” Lee said describing her win. “I have been working a lot with our assistant coach Brent [Franklin] on a couple of things and this week showed that I had been working on some stuff. I think that was the best part to know that my effort paid off.”
The 39th ranked Buffs posted a 13-over par final round to finish the tournament with a 286-289-297—872 at the Meadow Club course.
No. 1 Washington shot a 5-under par final round and won the tournament with the only subpar team score at 18-under par 834. The Oregon Ducks, ranked No. 31 in the country, finished second posting an 858 or 6-over par. UC Davis took third place, eight strokes behind Oregon. The Buffs followed in fourth place and Coastal Carolina used a 3-over par final round to move up four places and finish fifth at 26-over par.
“I'm so proud of Esther and very happy for her,” said Colorado head coach Anne Kelly. “She is a very talented player. The team also showed improvement, but we still need to work hard on putting.”
Lee led the 72-player field in par 4 scoring at 7-under and finished in the top five with 11 birdies and 39 pars. She entered the final round in first place and was able to maintain her standing with another stellar outing. Lee bogeyed her second hole, and then settled to par the next 11 holes. She would bogey No. 17 to go to 2-over on the day, but immediately followed it up with a birdie and three straight pars to finish the day at 1-over.
“I didn't go into the round today thinking I had to shoot a really low score because that's a lot of pressure and I didn't want to put that kind of pressure on myself,” said Lee. I took it hole-by-hole since the course was playing tough today. I knew that even though the scores were really low yesterday they were maybe not going to be as low today so I just took it one hole at a time.”
Freshman Brittany Fan improved her final round score by three strokes and moved up nine spots to finish tied for 17th at 6-over 219. After paring her first hole, she bogeyed the next two, moving to 2-over. Although it was a challenging start, Fan turned in a solid performance the remainder of the afternoon with 12 pars and two birdies. The Pearl City, Hawaii native birdied the par 5 No. 13 to get to 1-over then fell back to 2-over again with a bogey on her third to last hole. She completed the third round on a high note though, draining a birdie on the final hole to card a 1-over.
Junior Alexis Keating shot 72-75-77—224 or 11-over par and tied for 33rd place. Keating was consistent throughout most of her round with 13 pars and one birdie. She was even-par halfway through, but had a set-back with a bogey and double-bogey in two of her next three holes. After a birdie to bring her back down to 2-over par, she stayed there until a difficult finish with a bogey and triple-bogey to put her at 6-over.
Sophomore Natalie Vivaldi completed the tournament with a 75-74-76–225 or 12-over par performance. Vivaldi was 4-over par after four holes and fought her way back to 2-over after sinking four birdies during the next nine holes. She was challenged on Nos. 2-4, recording a trio of bogeys, and then pared the last two holes. Vivaldi finished tied for 36th overall.
Junior Jamie Oleksiew carded an 8-over par in the final round and posted a 76-73-79—228 score, finishing in a tie for 48th place. Oleksiew started 3-over through eight holes then dropped back down to 2-over par with a birdie, but followed with a bogey and double-bogey on the next two holes. She would go on to bogey three of the next five before ending the day with two straight pars.
Playing as an individual, junior Allie Zech finished tied for 66th shooting a 74-79-87—240 or 27-over par at the meet. She went 16-over par in the final round, 9-over on the front nine and 7-over on the back. Tuesday was a more challenging day on the course for Zech as she opened paring her first hole, but then hit a stretch of seven straight bogeys to go 7-over. She also had back-to-back double-bogeys on holes 11 and 12 before settling down to par two of her last three on the afternoon.
Washington's Jennifer Yang shot a 3-under par in the final round and climbed one spot to share medalist honors with Lee. Oregon's Caroline Inglis and Eimi Koga from Washington finished two strokes back and tied for third at 5-under par 208. The Huskie's Ying Luo fell three spots in her final round and took fifth, posting a 210 or 3-under par.
The Buffaloes have a week off before returning to the links to compete in the San Diego State Farms Invitational, March 24-25 in Rancho Santa Fe, Calif.
|
BUFFALO INDIVIDUALS |
||
|
Rank |
Name |
Score |
|
T1. |
67-67-72—206 |
|
|
T17. |
72-75-72—219 |
|
|
T33. |
72-75-77—224 |
|
|
T36. |
75-74-76—225 |
|
|
T48. |
76-73-79—228 |
|
|
T66. |
74-79-87—240 |
|
|
TOP 5 INDIVIDUALS |
||
|
Rank |
Name |
Score |
|
T1. |
Esther Lee, Colorado |
67-67-72—206 |
|
T1. |
Jennifer Yang, Washington |
72-66-68—206 |
|
T3. |
Eimi Koga, Washington |
67-71-70—208 |
|
T3. |
Caroline Inglis, Oregon |
69-69-70—208 |
|
5. |
Ying Luo, Washington |
73-65-72—210 |
|
TEAM SCORES |
||
|
Rank |
Team |
Score |
|
1. |
Washington |
280-275-279—834 |
|
2. |
Oregon |
285-281-292—858 |
|
3. |
UC Davis |
286-289-291—866 |
|
4. |
COLORADO |
286-289-297—872 |
|
5. |
Coastal Carolina |
297-294-287—878 |
|
6. |
San Jose State |
299-289-294—882 |
|
7. |
Gonzaga |
295-295-293—883 |
|
8. |
UC Riverside |
290-293-301—884 |
|
9. |
San Francisco |
306-293-297—896 |
|
10. |
Colorado State |
302-286-309—897 |
|
T11. |
Brigham Young |
307-299-299—905 |
|
T11. |
Indiana |
296-312-297—905 |
|
13. |
UC Irvine |
313-311-306—930 |
Players Mentioned
