Buffs Earn Split After First Day Of SDSU Match Play Event

RANCHO SANTA FE, Calif. – The University of Colorado women's golf team earned a split here Monday after two rounds of match play in San Diego State's March Mayhem at The Farms Golf Club.

The Buffaloes, seeded as the No. 9 team, fell to No. 8 seed Oregon, 3-2-0 in their opening round, which moved them into the consolation bracket of the tournament. Colorado bounced back in the afternoon with a strong performance as the team defeated No. 16 seed UC Irvine, 4-0-1. The Buffs are one of eight Pac-12 squads that make up the 16-team field.

"Unfortunately, we didn't play our best and that's kind of the most frustrating part,” said Colorado head coach Anne Kelly. “Alexis [Keating] played well in the first round, but other than that, we didn't really play our best. We got off to a pretty good start this afternoon, but then we let some holes slip away and we just have to eliminate those errors. We just can't do that. We have to clean some stuff up.”

Senior Alexis Keating won her match against Oregon's Marcella Pranovla 4&2 to begin the day. The match remained all-square through the first seven holes and then Keating gradually built her lead to secure the win. She moved to 1-up when Pranovla double-bogeyed No. 8 and two holes later went 2-up with a birdie. Keating was 3-up through 15 holes and the match ended on No. 16 as Pranovla bogeyed the hole and Keating pared to finish 4-up. The Elma, Wash. native followed suit in the afternoon, winning 3&1 against UC Irvine's Samantha Chan. The pair played nearly an entire round—17 holes before Keating earned her second win of the tournament. She led wire-to-wire, taking a 1-up lead on her first hole. Keating then pared her final three holes while Chan went par-bogey-bogey to end the match.

Sophomore Brittany Fan joined Keating as the only other Buff to win both of her matches on Monday. In her first match against Oregon, she defeated Petra Salko, 2-up and closed out the day with a 4&3 victory over UC Irvine's Joy Kim. Fan and Salko made the turn to the back side all-square before Fan moved to 1-up on the 10th hole. The match was squared again the very next hole after Salko made par and Fan bogeyed, however Fan regained the lead on No. 12, moving to 1-up. They each halved the next two holes and then Fan clinched the match on No. 15 with a birdie. She carried her momentum into the second round with a dominating performance, leading from start-to-finish. Fan won 7 of the 15 holes played and moved to as high as 5-up several times throughout the round before winning 4&3.

Junior Esther Lee faced the tall order of playing against Oregon's Caroline Inglis right out of the gate. Lee fell just short of the defending Pac-12 champion as Inglis won 3&2. Lee was only down one with five holes to play, but Inglis won the next two holes and the pair halved the par 3, No. 16, which gave Inglis the win. Lee rebounded in her second match, defeating UC Irvine's Kelsey Kawaguchi 3&2. She started strong, moving to 6-up after eight holes. Four holes later, Kawaguchi cut Lee's lead to 3-up, but they halved two of the next four, propelling Lee to the win at 3-up.

Freshman Gillian Vance went 1-1 in her two matches, falling to Cathleen Santoso of Oregon, 3&2 to open the tournament and then beat UC Irvine's Camille Wagg, 5&3 in the second round. Vance remained within striking distance of Santoso up until the 16th and final hole as Santoso was never more than 2-up at that point. Vance, 2-down entering No. 16, she bogeyed and Santoso made a par to move to 3-up and top Vance 3&2. In the second round, Vance was in control the entire way, quickly taking a 1-up lead on her first hole over Wagg. She would continue to build on her lead throughout the rest of the afternoon, winning six and halving five of the next 14 holes to close out the match with a 5&3 victory.

Junior Natalie Vivaldi dropped her first round match to Oregon's Kathleen Scavo, 5&4. After going 1-up through three holes, Scavo squared the match on No. 4 and it remained tied until Scavo took her first lead on No. 8 at 1-up. She won four of the next six holes to top Vivaldi. In the second round, Vivaldi then tied UC Irvine's Breanne Jones in the second round as the pair finished all-square.

The Buffaloes opponent on Tuesday is to be determined as some second round matches were suspended due to darkness. Round three will being no sooner than 10 a.m. MT. Live scoring is available at BirdieFire.com.

(8) Oregon def. (9) Colorado, 3-2-0
Alexis Keating (CU) def. Marcella Pranovla (UO), 4&2
Cathleen Santoso (UO) def. Gillian Vance (CU), 3&2
Carolina Inglis (UO) def. Esther Lee (CU), 3&2
Brittany Fan (CU) def. Petra Salko (UO), 2-up
Kathleen Scavo (UO) def. Natalie Vivaldi (CU), 5&4

TEAM SCORES – First Round

(1) Southern California def. (16) UC Irvine, 4-0-1
(2) UCLA def. (15) Delaware, 4-0-1
(3) Arizona def. (14) Memphis, 5-0-0
(4) Stanford def. (13) Texas State, 3-2-0
(5) Arizona State def. (12) UC Davis, 3-2-0
(11) Kansas def. (6) California 3-2-0
(7) San Diego State def. (10) TCU, 3-2-0
(8) Oregon def. (9) Colorado, 3-2-0

(9) Colorado def. (16) UC Irvine, 4-0-1
Alexis Keating def. Samantha Chan, 3&1
Gillian Vance def. Camille Wagg, 5&3
Esther Lee def. Kelsey Kawaguchi, 3&2
Brittany Fan def. Joy Kim, 4&3
Natalie Vivaldi tied Breanne Jones, AS