SAN DIEGO – After a 17-day break from competition, the San Diego State women's golf team resumes its fall schedule this weekend when it heads north for the Stanford Intercollegiate, Oct. 19-21, in Stanford, Calif.
The three-day, 54-hole event gets underway Friday at the par-71, 6,171-yard Stanford Golf Course, where the Aztecs will encounter another challenging field, including the host Cardinal, which enters the tournament ranked 26th in the latest Golfstat index.
SDSU will also battle 10 other top-50 squads, including UCLA (2), USC (3), Arizona State (8), Washington (12), Northwestern (18), Pepperdine (21), Florida State (25), San José State (27), Oregon (39) and Iowa State (46), while California, Denver, Harvard, Oklahoma State and Washington State round out the list of participating schools.
For the second straight outing, Aztec head coach Leslie Spalding will employ the starting lineup of Gioia Carpinelli (Boppelsen, Switzerland), Sara Kjellker (Hollviken, Sweden), Fernanda Escauriza (Asuncion, Paraguay), Daniela Anastasi (La Jolla, Calif.) and Cameron Lee (Tustin, Calif.).
Carpinelli leads the Scarlet and Black with a 72.44 scoring average after three events and was SDSU's top finisher at the season-opening Branch Law Firm/Dick McGuire Invitational in Albuquerque, N.M., where she tied for second at 6-under 216, followed by a solo 12th-place performance with an even-par 216 at the Golfweek Conference Challenge in Wolcott, Colo.
In addition, Kjellker (73.22) paced the Aztecs in their last tournament earlier this month at the Windy City Collegiate Classic just outside of Chicago, where she tied for 15th with a 3-over 219, while Escauriza (75.22) tied for the 39th spot with Carpinelli at 10-over 226.
Now in its 23rd year, the Stanford Intercollegiate is hosted by Dr. Condoleezza Rice, an avid golfer who served as U.S. Secretary of State from 2005-09. Dr. Rice is now the Thomas and Barbara Stephenson Senior Fellow on Public Policy at Stanford University's Hoover Institution. Due to renovations to Stanford Golf Course, the event was held last season at Poppy Hills Golf Course in Pebble Beach, Calif.
San Diego State did not compete in the 2017 edition of the Stanford Intercollegiate, where UCLA (-3) wrested the team title away from the host Cardinal (E), overcoming a seven-stroke deficit with a blistering 9-under 275 during the final round. The Bruins' Patty Tavatanakit and Stanford's Andrea Lee shared medalist honors after each carded a 6-under 207, but will not compete in this weekend's event
However, the Cardinal's Albane Valenzuela and Mika Liu, who both tied for fourth last year at 2-under 211, are back in the mix, along with UCLA's Beth Wu (T-6th, E) and Mariel Galdiano (11th, +3), as well as Washington's Wenyung Keh (T-8th, +2).
The Aztecs last visited "The Farm" in October 2016, when they tied for 12th with Pepperdine at 35-over 603 after the final round was washed out due to standing water on several greens from heavy rains earlier in that weekend. Georgia Lacey, who has since completed her eligibility, was SDSU's top individual in that tournament, tying for second with a 2-under 140 en route to earning Mountain West women's golfer of the month honors. Prior to that excursion, the Aztecs made the trek to Stanford Golf Course for the NCAA Regional Championships in May 2016, finishing 12th out of 18 schools with a 43-over 895.
Designed in 1930 by renowned architects William Bell and George C. Thomas, Stanford Golf Course is consistently rated as one of the finest in the nation. In 2009, the course was selected as the third-best collegiate track in the United States following a Golf Channel survey of 160 coaches and was ranked fifth-best in the country according to Golfweek in 2010. Throughout the years, Stanford Golf Course has played host to numerous amateur and professional events, including U.S. Open qualifying, U.S. Junior Amateur qualifying, NCAA Women's Championships, NCAA Regionals, as well as a former Senior PGA Tour event, The Gathering at The Farm.
After this weekend's tournament, San Diego State will wrap up its fall schedule when it travels to Orange County for the UC Irvine Invitational, Oct. 29-30, at Santa Ana Country Club in Santa Ana, Calif.