Women's Golf Finishes Second At East & West Match Play Challenge

MADISON – The University of Colorado women's golf team earned a second place finish here at the East & West Match Play Challenge on Tuesday. The contest came down to the last pairing and Oregon edged the Buffaloes 3 & 2 in the championship match.

The tournament, hosted by the University of Wisconsin was played at the par 72, 6,219 yard University Ridge Golf Course and featured an eight-team field along with eight golfers playing as individuals. With Oregon and Colorado finishing first and second, respectively, fourth-seeded Indiana took third place, defeating No. 2 seed Michigan.

“I'm really proud of the effort that everyone put in this week,” said Colorado head coach Anne Kelly. “I think we learned a lot. It taught us really how to fight on those last few holes and that's an area we wanted to improve upon from Minnesota [the previous tournament], which I think we did.”

Junior Esther Lee won her match, defeating Kathleen Scavo 5 & 4. After Scavo briefly went 1-up on the second hole, Lee made birdie on the par-3, No. 3 to square it. She then pared the next hole and Scavo bogeyed to take go 1-up. Lee would maintain her lead the rest of the day, and pulled away once reaching the back side. Lee pared the 10th hole and shot 2-under over the next four holes to win. Lee finished 2-0 in her two tournament matches.

Senior Alexis Keating was trailing for half of her match, but made a comeback to defeat Petra Salko, 1-up. Keating went 2-down after eight holes, and by the 11th hole, she squared it going birdie-bogey-birdie and Salko made two pars and a bogey. The match was all-square with five holes yet to be played and Keating went 2-up sinking a birdie putt on No. 14 and paring No. 15, but Salko squared it on the par 3, 17 when Keating ran into some trouble with a bogey on back-to-back holes (Nos. 16 & 17). Keating bounced back on No. 18 though, draining a par putt to win it, while Salko bogeyed. Keating also went undefeated in her two matches this week, winning both by the same 1-up score.

Senior Allie Zech faced the tough test of playing against defending Pac-12 individual champion Caroline Inglis. Zech rallied from 3-down with only six holes left, forcing the match to go all 18 holes, however Inglis escaped to win 1-up. Zech started her comeback by draining a birdie on No. 13 and was only 2-down. Each golfer followed with a birdie and par on Nos. 14 & 15, then Zech capitalized on an opportunity to move within one as she birdied No. 16 and Inglis pared the hole. Zech was 1-down with two to play and the score remained the same to the finish as both made a bogey on the challenging 18th hole that had a difficult pin placement.

After going 5-down early in her match, Brittany Fan showed some resiliency, climbing back to within two and pushing the match to 17 holes before Ulep finished 2-up. Fan struggled through six of the first seven holes, shooting 6-over par and Ulep built her lead. Fan hung tough, however and won three straight holes to bring it back within two. But that's as close as Fan would get and Ulep went on to win 2 & 1.

Junior Natalie Vivaldi dropped her match 4 & 3 to Cathleen Santoso. Vivaldi grabbed a quick lead, winning her first two holes to go 2-up on her opponent, however the match was all-square again when Santoso won Nos. 3 and 4. Before making the turn, Vivaldi was 1-down then brought it back to all-square when she pared No. 10 and Santoso settled for a bogey. Santoso then birdied three of the last five holes to end the match.

Freshman Gillian Vance, competing as an individual, played against Wisconsin's Ali Nageotte in her final match. Nageotte edged Vance, 1-up.

The Buffaloes will host their annual fundraiser, the Desperado Classic on Sept. 27. Registration is available by visiting CUBuffs.com/events. Colorado's next tournament is scheduled for Oct. 6-7 at the Edean Ihlanfelt Invitational in Sammamish, Wash.