Women Golfers Finish 10th At SDSU March Mayhem Event

RANCHO SANTA FE, Calif. – The University of Colorado women's golf team fell to No. 6 seed California in its final round of the San Diego State March Mayhem match play event here Wednesday, 1-2-2 and finished in 10th place.

The No. 9 seed Buffaloes combined to play in 20 matches over three days at The Farms Golf Club, posting a 10-6-4 record. No. 1 seed Southern California won the event, defeating No. 3 seed Arizona 4-1-0 in the championship match.

Junior Esther Lee won her final match, 1-up against Amina Wolf. Lee fell behind early, going 1-down through the first three holes and squared it on the fourth before taking her first lead at 1-up through five. The match was squared again on the very next hole and would remain that way until Lee built a 2-up lead, winning the final two holes on the back side. Lee continued to hold the lead the rest of the round and closed it out at 1-up after they each pared the final hole. Lee went 3-1 in the event.

Junior Natalie Vivaldi and freshman Gillian Vance both finished their final matches all-square. Vance played all 18 holes against Marianne Li and rebounded after going 3-down through four holes. She went on to win six and square five of the final 14 holes. Vivaldi and Hannah Suh completed 15 holes in the last round of the tournament. Vivaldi made an impressive comeback from 4-down early on in the round. She won five holes and matched Suh stroke-for-stroke on four others, highlighted by a birdie on the final hole to bring it back to all-square. Vance posted a 1-2-1 match record for the tournament and Vivaldi was 1-1-2 record overall.

Senior Alexis Keating dropped a close match to Carly Childs, 2&1. Despite trailing throughout the round and being 3-down with four holes to play, Keating battled back winning two consecutive holes to cut to deficit to one as she made a par and birdie and Childs bogeyed and pared. The pair squared the 17th hole before Childs won when she pared and the final hole and Keating made a bogey. Keating finished the tournament with a 3-1 record in her four matches.

Sophomore Brittany Fan played her opponent, Lucia Gutierrez to 16 holes, but came up just short, falling 3&2 in her final match. Fan jumped out to an early 1-up advantage with a par on her first hole to Gutierrez's bogey. She remained 1-up through three until Gutierrez made a birdie to square it on the fourth hole and then Fan moved to 1-down with a bogey on the following hole. Fan was 2-down after 10 holes and although she and Gutierrez squared the next five holes, the match ended when Fan bogeyed on their 16th hole and Gutierrez made par. Fan went 1-2-1 in her four total matches.

The Buffaloes will have about 10 days off before traveling back to California to compete in their own Silverado Showdown, April 3-5 in Napa. Colorado co-hosts the tournament with Oregon.

(6) California def. (9) Colorado, 2-1-2
Carly Childs (CAL) def. Alexis Keating (CU), 2&1
Gillian Vance (CU) tied Marianne Li (CAL), AS
Esther Lee (CU) def. Amina Wolf (CAL), 1-up
Lucia Gutierrez (CAL) def. Brittany Fan (CU), 3&2
Natalie Vivaldi (CU) tied Hannah Suh (CAL), AS

FINAL TEAM STANDINGS
1. Southern California
2. Arizona
3. UCLA
4. Stanford
5. San Diego State
6. Arizona State
7. Oregon
8. Kansas
9. California
10. COLORADO
11. TCU
12. Texas State
13. UC Davis
14. Memphis
15. Delaware
16. UC Irvine