SAN DIEGO – San Diego State women's golf head coach Leslie Spalding has announced the signing of Bernice Olivarez Ilas to a National Letter of Intent. A senior at De La Salle Santiago Zobel School in her hometown of Ayala Alabang, Philippines, Olivarez Ilas will be eligible to compete for the Aztecs beginning with the 2019-20 season.
A standout junior golfer, Olivarez Ilas has posted 19 top-10 finishes since 2016, according to the World Amateur Golf Ranking (WAGR) website. Just last month, she recorded two victories in her home country, winning the Riviera MVPSF Amateur Championship after emerging triumphant at the 6th Mayor Edwin Olivarez Golf Cup.
Additionally, Olivarez Ilas logged two runner-up placements earlier this year in the Philippines at the Northern Luzon Regional Championship and the W Express RVF Cup Amateur Championship, where she accomplished the same feat in 2016.
In 2017, Olivarez Ilas also witnessed a plethora of success in international competition, highlighted by a pair of third-place efforts at the RSGC Junior Amateur in Malaysia and the SICC Junior Invitational Championship in Singapore. In between those performances, she turned in a fourth-place showing at the Hong Kong Ladies Open & Mid-Amateur Championships followed by a fifth-place finish at the Singha Thailand Amateur Open.
That same year, Olivarez Ilas made a series of appearances on American soil, featuring a fifth-place tie at the Future Champions Golf (FCG) International Junior Championship, held at Sycuan Resort, before landing in the 16th position at the FCG Callaway World Championship in Rancho Mirage, Calif. She also registered two top-30 placements at the IMG Academy Junior World Championship, held at Torrey Pines North Course, and the Women's Porter Cup in Niagara Falls, N.Y.
Olivarez Ilas enjoyed a banner season in 2016 as well, placing no worse than 12th in eight tournaments counting toward her WAGR. In addition to her aforementioned second-place effort at the W Express RVF Cup Amateur, Olivarez Ilas landed in the runner-up spot at the Hong Kong Ladies Open Amateur and the Melaka Amateur Open in Malaysia, where she also tied for fifth at the RSGC AmBank Junior Amateur Open.
San Diego State opens its 2019 spring campaign when it competes in the Bruin Wave Invitational, Feb. 25-26, in San Luis Obispo, Calif.