SAN DIEGO – Fresh off a victory at the Lamkin Invitational on Feb. 10-11, the San Diego State women's golf team returns to action Monday to compete in the two-day Bruin Wave Invitational at San Luis Obispo Country Club in San Luis Obispo, Calif.
The Bruin Wave Invitational will be contested over the par-72, 6,103-yard course layout with two rounds (36 holes) set for Monday, beginning at 7:15 a.m. PT, and the final round (18 holes) slated for Tuesday at 7:30 a.m. PT.
The Aztecs will be in the mix with co-hosts No. 14 UCLA and Pepperdine, along with No. 2 USC, No. 16 Oregon, Cal Poly, CSUN, Northwestern, Oregon State, San Francisco, Washington and Washington State.
SDSU will be teeing off from hole No. 10 with Washington and Washington State, beginning at 7:20 a.m. PT Monday.
San Diego State head coach Leslie Spalding has gone with the starting lineup of Sara Kjellker (Hollviken, Sweden), Gioa Carpinelli (Boppelsen, Switzerland), Fernanda Escauriza (Asunción, Paraguay), Benice Ilas (Ayala Alabang, Philippines) and April Ranches (San Diego).
Kjellker, Carpinelli and Escauriza each are coming off 3-0 efforts in match play at the Lamkin Invitational. Kjellker was particularly solid, winning 7&6, 7&6 and 1 up en route to being named the Mountain West Women's Golfer of the Week on Feb. 13. Kjellker was the Aztecs' top performer in the fall, owning a 71.44 scoring average with three top-10 finishes. The junior's best fall finish was at the Golfweek Conference Challenge in Wolcott, Colo., where she tied for fourth at 7-under 209. She also tied for eighth at the season-opening Branch Law Firm/Dick McGuire Invitational in Albuquerque, N.M., and tied for seventh at the Molly Murphy Crowley Collegiate in Portland, Ore.
Carpinelli ranks second on the squad with a 73.42 scoring average to go along with a pair of top-10 placements. She tied for 10th at the Branch/McGuire Invite after firing a 3-under 213, highlighted by a career-low 66 in round. Carpinelli also tied for seventh at the Crowley Collegiate, carding a 5-over 221 in a field where only three competitors broke par for the week.
Escauriza, meanwhile, was the only SDSU golfer to start all four events last fall. The senior posted the third-lowest scoring average (74.42) in the fall, highlighted by a pair of 23rd-place finishes at the Branch/McGuire Invite and the Stanford Intercollegiate in Stanford, Calif.
Ilas (74.67) and Ranches (75.00) will also be competing for San Diego State this week.
The Aztecs were sixth at last year's Bruin Wave Invitational, buoyed by third-place finishes by Carpinelli and Escauriza at 8-over-par 224. SDSU has competed in all 10 iterations of the Bruin Wave Invite with a best finish of fourth (2015, 2016 (T4) and 2018).
Following this week's tournament, San Diego State heads to the Dr. Donnis Thompson Invitational at the Kane'ohe Golf Club in Kane'ohe, Hawaii, on March 10-11.