W. Golf Set for Fall Finale at UC Irvine Invitational

SAN DIEGO – The San Diego State women's golf team wraps up its fall schedule early next week when it sends seven individuals north to Orange County to compete in the UC Irvine Invitational, Oct. 29-30, in Santa Ana, Calif.  

The first two rounds of the event will be conducted on Monday at the par-72, 6,072-yard Santa Ana Country Club, while the final 18 holes are slated for a Tuesday completion. A live scoring link courtesy of Golfstat will be available on GoAztecs.com.

In addition to the SDSU delegation, the nine-team field features full squads from host UC Irvine, Boise State, Cal Baptist, Cal Poly, Cal State Fullerton, CSUN, Long Beach State, Northern Illinois, Santa Clara and South Dakota State, while USC has entered four unattached competitors as well.

Leading the Aztec contingent are Gioia Carpinelli (Boppelsen, Switzerland), Sara Kjellker (Hollviken, Sweden) and Fernanda Escauriza (Asunción, Paraguay), who will join Cameron Lee (Tustin, Calif.), Daniela Anastasi (La Jolla, Calif.) and Kitty Tam (Hong Kong, China), while April Ranches (San Diego, Calif.) is set to make her collegiate debut.

SDSU is coming off a solid eighth-place performance at the Stanford Intercollegiate last week, where it shot a collective 19-over 871 to finish ahead of four top-50 squads in No. 2 UCLA (T-9th, +22)), No. 27 San José State (11th, +29), No. 39 Oregon (12th, +33) and No. 46 Iowa State (13th, +34).

The Scarlet and Black logged three top-25 individual placements in the Bay Area, including Carpinelli and Kjellker, who tied for the 20th position after each carded a 2-over-par 215, while Escauriza finished one shot behind in a tie for 25th at 3-over 216, buoyed by a final-round 69.

Through four tournaments, Carpinelli leads the Aztecs with a 72.25 scoring average 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 showing with an even-par 216 at the Golfweek Conference Challenge in Wolcott, Colo. For her efforts, the Aztec sophomore has climbed into the 74th position in the latest Golfstat individual rankings.

Meanwhile, fellow classmate Kjellker (72.83) finds herself in the 97th spot nationally on the heels of her sixth career top-20 placement. Earlier this month, the native Swede topped the squad with a 15th-place finish at the Windy City Collegiate Classic with a 3-over 219.

The UC Irvine Invitational will feature San Diego State individuals for the second year in a row. In 2017, Escauriza led a four-player faction from The Mesa, tying for sixth with a 2-over 218, while Anastasi tied for 14th with a 6-over 222, followed by Lee (T-37th, +13) and Tam (T-56th, +22).

Long Beach State is the defending team champion after carding a 15-over 879, while the 49ers' Euna Pak, who finished a solo third at 5-under 211, is the top returning individual. Fellow teammates Cara Barker (4th, E),  Haley Tyget (T-6th, +2) and Maria Davis (T-21st, +9) are also back in the mix, joining the Aztecs' Escauriza and Anastasi, UC Irvine's Janet Yeo (T-21st, +9) and Northern Illinois' Kelly Anderson (T-21st, +9).

Following the UC Irvine Invitational, San Diego State will have four-months off from competition before opening their spring slate at the Bruin Wave Invitational, Feb. 25-26, 2019, in San Luis Obispo, Calif.