Buffs In 11th After Two Rounds At ASU Invite

TEMPE, Ariz. –The University of Colorado women's golf team recorded its second straight round of 10-over par here Saturday at the Arizona State Invitational and is in 11th place.

The Buffaloes are 20-over par (298-298—596) through 36 holes of the three-day tournament. Colorado put together a strong front side, but stumbled on the back—opposite from the opening round on Friday when CU played the last nine holes better than the first nine. On Saturday, the Buffs were a combined 2-under par as they made the turn, however they wrapped up the day going 12-over on the final nine holes.

“Hopefully tomorrow we can put two nines together,” said Colorado head coach Anne Kelly. “It felt like the opposite of yesterday. We played really well at the beginning and then ran into some problems. Brittany [Fan] was going strong, then had a triple on No. 10 and Esther [Lee] basically had a hard day. This course continues to give us good experience and makes us work on our short irons and wedges. It's a learning experience and good preparation for the postseason."

UCLA remains in first place at 8-under par, but its lead has been trimmed to one stroke as tournament host Arizona State shot 6-under par in the second round and own a 7-under par total team score. Alabama is 2-under par and in third place, UNLV, even for the event, dropped two places into fourth and Arizona rounds out the top five at 3-over par.

Recording the best round for the Buffs on Saturday was senior Alexis Keating. She shot a 1-under par, 71, bringing her to an even-par, 144 total after two days in the books. Alexis made 11 pars and four birdies against three bogeys. She has climbed 12 places on the leaderboard and is tied for 12th overall. Alexis has seven total birdies in the event, fourth-most among the 78-player field.

After shooting a 3-under par in the opening round on Friday, junior Esther Lee struggled in round two, carding a 4-over par with a 2-over par on the front and back side. Her day consisted of 13 pars and one birdie against three bogeys and a double. Lee was even through eight holes and then shot plus-4 over the next six before finishing with four straight pars. Lee is tied for 21st place at 1-over par for the tournament.

Junior Natalie Vivaldi turned in a 75 or 3-over par, a two-stroke improvement from round one. She is tied for 51st at 8-over par (152) through two rounds. On Saturday, Vivaldi had 15 pars and three bogeys, shooting 1-over on the front and 2-over on the back.

Sophomore Brittany Fan and freshman Gillian Vance each carded a 76 or 4-over par here in the second round. Vance has posted an 11-over par, 155 through 36 holes and Fan is one-stroke behind at 12-over par, 156 after two rounds. On Saturday, Vance started with a bogey on hole No. 1, then reeled off eight consecutive pars to close with a plus-1 on the front side. Making the turn, she had back-to-back bogeys on Nos. 10 and 11, moving her to 3-over. Two holes later she had her only birdie of the round to earn one stroke back, but then struggled at the finish with two straight bogeys going into the clubhouse. Fan had a similar round, in which she had a strong performance on the first nine holes, shooting 2-under with 7 pars and two birdies, but ran into trouble on the back side, posting 6-over par with 3 pars and 1 birdie against four bogeys and a triple. Vance is tied for 61st place and Fan is tied for 64th overall.

Freshman Lauryn Keating, playing as an individual, shot 4-over par in round two and is tied for 45th place. She tallied 15 pars, a pair of bogeys and one double. Lauryn heads into the final round at 7-over par for the event.

UCLA's Bronte Law and Lilia Vu share the lead at 9-under par and are four strokes ahead of Sophia Schubert of Texas, who is in third place at 5-under par. Arizona State's Linnea Strom is 4-under in fourth place and Stephanie Lau from Northwestern carded a 66 in round two and moved into fifth place.

The third and final round is set for a shotgun start at 9 a.m. MDT on Sunday. Colorado will tee-off from holes 11-15 and play alongside Baylor, Oregon State and Washington State. Live scoring is available at GolfStat.com.

BUFFALO INDIVIDUALS
Rank	Name	Score
T12.	Alexis Keating	73-71—144
T21.	Esther Lee	69-76—145
T51.	Natalie Vivaldi	77-75—152
T61.	Gillian Vance	79-76—155
T64.	Brittany Fan	80-76—156
T45.	Lauryn Keating*	75-76—151
TOP 5 INDIVIDUALS
Rank	Name	Score
T1.	Lilia Vu, UCLA	68-67—135
T1.	Bronte Law, UCLA	64-71—135
3.	Sophia Schubert, Texas	69-70—139
4.	Linnea Strom, Arizona State	69-71—140
5.	Stephanie Lau, Northwestern	75-66—141
TEAM SCORES
Rank	Team	Score
1.	UCLA	281-287—568
2.	Arizona State	287-282—569
3.	Alabama	288-286—574
4.	UNLV	287-289—576
5.	Arizona	288-291—579
6.	Northwestern	301-282—583
7.	Texas	295-290—585
8.	Washington	298-290—588
T9.	Baylor	300-293—593
T9.	Oregon State	294-299—593
11.	COLORADO	298-298—596
12.	Washington State	301-298—599
13.	Denver	309-301—610
14.	Hawai'i	324-297—621