Women Golfers Finish 10th At Arizona Wildcat Invitational

TUCSON, Ariz. – The University of Colorado women golfers posted their second best team score of the tournament here Tuesday in the final round of the Arizona Wildcat Invitational, moving up three positions to finish in 10th place.

The Buffaloes entered the final round in 13th, but after collectively shooting 7-over par in their final 18 holes, the team was able to climb the leaderboard and earn its eighth top 10 finish of the year. Colorado closed out the event with a 294-306-295—895 or 31-over par total.

Host Arizona was the only squad to post a subpar team score on the final day as the Wildcats won their own tournament with a 7-under par 857. Arizona State came in second with an 868 and UNLV finished third, recording an 876 or 12-over par performance. Miami placed fourth after posting an 883, while Baylor and Purdue tied for fifth place, both finishing with 884 team scores.

“We played a little bit better today, but still left a lot of shots out there,” said Colorado head coach Anne Kelly. “It wasn't our best putting week overall. We need to improve on our par 5s and need to putt a little better. It's not at all the finish we wanted, but I think we take away a lot from it and get ready for next week's event.”

Junior Esther Lee led the way for the Buffaloes on Tuesday, posting a 2-under par 70 and finished with a team-best 220 or 4-over par total. Lee recorded 14 pars and three birdies against only one bogey in the last round, her lowest of the 54-hole event. She had a strong start and finish to her round, opening with a birdie on her first hole and closed going 1-under over her last four. In the individual standings, Lee finished tied for 18th overall.

Junior Natalie Vivaldi carded 75 or 3-over par to wrap up the tournament at 8-over par, 224 on the 6,492-yard, par 72 Sewailo Club course. She started the final round shooting 5-over through 10 holes before finishing the last eight at 2-under par, a stretch that consisted of six pars and a pair of birdies. In total, Vivaldi tallied a team-high 10 birdies for the event and finished tied for 33rd place.

Sophomore Brittany Fan went 2-over on the day and finished tied for 37th with a 225 or 9-over par scorecard. She recorded 11 pars and 3 birdies against 3 bogeys and 1 double as her 74 was the second lowest score for the Buffs on Tuesday. After six holes, Fan was even-par and then a double-bogey on her seventh moved her to plus-2. She would get back to 1-over when she shot 1-under over the next four holes and would remain there with three holes to play. Fan had back-to-back bogeys going into her last hole and drained a birdie to post the 2-over par.

Senior Alexis Keating concluded the tournament in the desert at 11-over par. She shot a 76 or 4-over par in the final round, which included 12 pars, 1 birdie and 5 bogeys. A birdie on her seventh hole propelled her to 1-under, but then a string of three straight bogeys pushed her to 2-over. She settled down to par the following three and went 2-over down the final five-hole stretch. Keating tied for 43rd place.

Senior Allie Zech played her best golf of the tournament here in the last round as she posted a 4-over par 76 and recorded a 237 or 21-over par final score. Her final round consisted of 12 pars, 1 birdie and 5 bogeys. Zech finished in 73rd place.

Arizona's Krystal Quihuis jumped from fourth to first place and won by a single stroke when she posted a 7-under par, 209 total. A pair of Arizona State Sun Devils—Linnea Strom (-6) and Monica Vaughn (-5) finished in second and third place, respectively. Followed by a duo from Miami, Daniela Darquea and Dewi Weber, who tied for fourth place at 4-under par.

The Buffaloes will spend part of their spring break in Rancho Santa Fe, Calif. next week to play in San Diego State's March Mayhem, March 21-23—a four-round match-play event. The trip concludes a stretch of three straight weeks of tournaments for the Buffs.

BUFFALO INDIVIDUALS
Rank	Name	Score
T18.	Esther Lee	73-77-70—220
T33.	Natalie Vivaldi	70-79-75—224
T37.	Brittany Fan	80-71-74—225
T43.	Alexis Keating	72-79-76—227
73.	Allie Zech	79-82-76—237
TOP 5 INDIVIDUALS
Rank	Name	Score
1.	Krystal Quihuis, Arizona	68-71-70—209
2.	Linnea Strom, Arizona State	67-68-75—210
3.	Monica Vaughn, Arizona State	71-72-68—211
T4.	Daniela Darquea, Miami	69-69-74—212
T4.	Dewi Weber, Miami	71-67-74—212
TEAM SCORES
Rank	Team	Score
1.	Arizona	282-293-282—857
2.	Arizona State	285-289-294—868
3.	UNLV	289-295-292—876
4.	Miami	294-291-298—883
T5.	Baylor	292-299-293—884
T5.	Purdue	288-294-302—884
7.	South Carolina	297-290-300—887
8.	Michigan	294-300-294—888
9.	Vanderbilt	298-292-300—890
10.	COLORADO	294-306-295—895
11.	New Mexico State	297-302-297—896
12.	Kansas	301-304-294—899
13.	Northern Arizona	298-296-311—905
14.	Washington State	301-298-311—910
15.	New Mexico	301-307-303—911