SAN DIEGO – After a nearly four-month break from competition, the San Diego State women's golf team opens its spring schedule in earnest next week when it travels to the Central Coast for the Bruin Wave Invitational, Feb. 25-26, in San Luis Obispo, Calif.
The first two rounds of the 54-hole event will begin on Monday with an 8 a.m. PT shotgun start at the par-72, 6,266-yard San Luis Obispo Country Club, while the final 18 holes are pegged for completion on Tuesday with tee times off holes 1 and 10 as early as 7:50 a.m. A live scoring link for both days will be available on GoAztecs.com courtesy of Golfstat.
The Aztecs are among 10 schools in the elite 15-team field ranked among the Golfstat top 60 this week. Along with tournament co-hosts UCLA (4) and Pepperdine (25), No. 55 San Diego State will square off against Stanford (5), Northwestern (14), Arizona State (17), Washington (28), California (41), Oregon (42) and Ole Miss (43). In addition, the Scarlet and Black will be afforded an early look at Mountain West rival New Mexico, while Cal Poly, New Mexico State, San Francisco and UC Irvine round out the list of competing squads.
For SDSU's spring opener, eighth year head coach Leslie Spalding will utilize the starting lineup of Sara Kjellker (Hollviken, Sweden), Fernanda Escauriza (Asunción, Paraguay), Gioia Carpinelli (Boppelsen, Switzerland), Kitty Tam (Hong Kong, China) and April Ranches (San Diego, Calif.).
Carpinelli led the Aztecs with a 72.40 scoring average in 15 rounds last fall, highlighted by a second-place tie at the Branch Law Firm/Dick McGuire Invitational, where she shot a career-best 6-under 210. She also finished a solo 12th at the Golfweek Conference Challenge with an even-par 216 and tied for the 20th spot with a 2-over 215 at the Stanford Intercollegiate, along with teammate Kjellker.
Kjellker (72.46) was the Scarlet and Black's top finisher at the Windy City Collegiate Classic, tying for 15th with a 3-over 219, before ending the fall with a fifth-place tie as individual competitor at the UC Irvine Invitational, where she fired a season-low 3-under 213.
Escauriza (74.40), meanwhile, enjoyed a highly successful winter break, winning the South American Amateur Championship last month in Buenos Aires, Argentina, after competing for the victorious Paraguayan national women's team at Copa Los Andes last November in Montevideo, Uruguay, along with former Aztec teammate Mila Chaves.
In addition, Tam (75.67) will make her fourth appearance of the year, while Ranches, a local product from Serra High School, earned her first varsity start for the Aztecs after playing as an individual golfer at the UC Irvine Invitational.
SDSU matched its highest finish at the Bruin Wave Invite last season when it took fourth at 49-over 913, emerging as the lone non-Pac-12 Conference school among the top six. Kjellker was the Scarlet and Black's top golfer at last year's installment, tying for seventh out of 83 participants with a 10-over 226, as only one golfer finished under par for the tournament. For her efforts, the native Swede collected Mountain West Player of the Week honors.
Carpinelli, meanwhile, is the only other returner from last season's Bruin Wave Invite, where she tied for 21st with a 15-over 231.
USC, which captured the team title at the event in 2018 with a 32-over 896, is skipping this year's meet, leaving UCLA (2nd, +40) and Stanford (3rd, +42) as the top two returning squads, followed by SDSU (4th, +49) and Washington (5th, +50).
Two-time medalist Lilia Vu of UCLA has completed her eligibility, conferring the title of top returning individual to Stanford's Albane Valenzuela, who finished alone in second last year with a 1-over 217. Also back in the mix are UCLA's Mariel Galdiano (T-4th, +8), Washington's Sarah Rhee (6th, +9), Rino Sasaki (T-9th, +11) and Karen Miyamoto (T-11th, +12), SDSU's Kjellker (+10) and Pepperdine's Hira Naveed (T-11th, +12).
The Aztecs have appeared in every edition of the Bruin Wave Invitational since its inception in 2010. The tournament will be conducted in San Luis Obispo for the fourth consecutive season following a four-year stay at El Caballero Country Club in Tarzana from 2012-15. SDSU boasted the individual medalist in 2012, when Christine Wong took home the crown with a combined 3-over 219. In 2010 and 2011, the event was contested at Robinson Ranch Golf Club in Santa Clarita.
Following the Bruin Wave Invite, the Aztecs will venture to the desert to compete in the Wildcat Invitational, March 11-12, at Sewailo Golf Club in Tucson, Ariz.