Colorado University Athletics
Colorado
San Diego State Farms Invitational
Buffs Advance In Match Play At San Diego State Farm Invite
March 23, 2015 | Women's Golf
SAN DIEGO – The University of Colorado women's golf team tied Houston 2 ½ - 2 ½ and advanced on a tiebreaker to the championship bracket after completing the first round of match play here Monday afternoon in the San Diego State Farm Invitational.
“We haven't played match play much at all so it's something new and really pretty fun,” said Colorado head coach Anne Kelly. “I think the athletes on our team had a lot of fun playing today.”
After 18 holes of play, the match remained all knotted up and was forced to a tiebreaker, which favored the eighth-seeded Buffaloes as Colorado won five holes to Houston's three.
The three-day, 72-hole match-play event is comprised of 16 schools competing at the Farms Golf Club. The other seven teams also advancing to the winners bracket after Monday are: Arizona State, California, Oklahoma State, Pepperdine, San Diego State, Tennessee and UNLV.
Sophomore Esther Lee played 17 holes against her opponent. She eventually defeated the Cougar's Raegan Bremer 2-and-1 and helped the Buffaloes earn two points.
Junior Jamie Oleksiew joined Lee as the only other Buff to win her head-to-head match on Monday afternoon. Oleksiew was 4-down on the front nine and fought her way back, finishing 3-up with 1 to go on Yuka Kajiki. The Vancouver, British Columbia native won seven of her last eight holes to propel her to the victory.
“Jamie was the key for us today,” Kelly said. “She played great on the back nine and that was big for us.”
Junior Alexis Keating turned in a solid performance against Houston's Courtney Ferguson, who Kelly described as a “very good player and highly recruited junior golfer.” Keating took her opponent a full 18 holes and halved the match, finishing all-square.
Freshman Brittany Fan fell to Megan Thothong 1-down in her match. Thothong started off “making quite a few putts,” according to Kelly. Fan was 2-down at one point and was able to bring it back to even, but she struggled on No. 17 to drop the match.
Sophomore Natalie Vivaldi also played a very good player in Houston's Emily Gilbreth. She dropped her match by two strokes as Gilbreth won 2-up. Vivaldi turned in a solid performance and was 1 or 2-up, or all-square throughout much of the day, but she fell lost on the 18th hole.
The Buffs will face the tournament's top seed and No. 13 team in the nation, Oklahoma State in the second round on Tuesday. Oklahoma State defeated 16-seed UC Irvine 4-1-0 on Monday.
“Oklahoma State is a tough team and historically a very good program,” said Kelly. “Basically all of the pressure is on them. We just need to go out and play tough, and see if we can pull off an upset.”
Round two gets underway at 8:45 a.m. MDT with players starting on Nos. 1 and 10. Live scoring is available on BirdieFire.com.
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BUFFALO INDIVIDUALS |
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Esther Lee (CU) def. Raegan Bremer (Houston), 2&1 |
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Jamie Oleksiew (CU) def. Yuka Kajiki (Houston), 3&1 |
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Alexis Keating (CU) ties Courtney Ferguson (Houston), all-square |
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Emily Gilbreth (Houston) def. Natalie Vivaldi (CU), 2-up |
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Megan Thothong (Houston) def. Brittany Fan (CU), 1-up |
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TEAM SCORES |
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(1) Oklahoma State def. (16) UC Irvine, 4-1-0 |
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(8) Colorado ties (9) Houston, 2-2-1* |
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(4) Pepperdine def. (13) Michigan, 3-2-0 |
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(5) Arizona State def. (12) Boise State, 4-0-1 |
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(2) Tennessee def. (15) New Mexico, 5-0-0 |
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(7) Cal def. (10) Kansas, 3-2-0 |
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(3) UNLV def. (14) Nevada, 3-2-0 |
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(6) San Diego State def. (11) Long Beach State, 3-2-0 |
*CU advanced on tiebreaker, 5-3
Players Mentioned
