Second-ranked USC won its second straight tournament and Emma Spitz of UCLA shared the individual title with Kelly Sim of Northwestern in the 11th annual Bruin Wave Invitational at San Luis Obispo Country Club.
The Trojans, who captured Rebel Beach Intercollegiate in Las Vegas in their last start, claimed the Bruin Wave title for the fifth time with a score of 300-282-296—878, 14-over-par, followed by arch-rival UCLA at 296-292-292—880, while Northwestern finished at 292-293-297—882 to tie for third with Oregon, which wound up at 297-295-290—882.
“(Assistant coach) Katie (Mitchell) and I are so proud of this group for stepping up this week and getting a win,” said Justin Silverstein, who claimed his ninth victory in less than three seasons as head coach of the Trojans.
Oregon State was fifth at 303-303-293—899, followed by Washington at 296-302-310—908 and Cal Poly San Luis Obispo 312-301-304—917.
San Diego State posted a score of 311-304-304—919 to tie for eighth with Pepperdine, which totaled 312-308-299—919, while Washington State was 10th at 317-307-311—935.
San Francisco was 11th at 310-309-320—939, followed by Cal State Northridge at 319-318-325—962.
Spitz, a UCLA freshman from Austria who won the 2018 Girls’ British Open Amateur and the 2019 Slovenian Amateur Championship, rallied from a six-stroke deficit in the final round to earn a share of her first college title with a score of 71-71-69—211, 5-under, while Sim finished at 67-69-75—211.
Emilie Paltrinieri of UCLA was third at 73-72-69—214, followed by Briana Chacon of Oregon at 75-73-67—215, Amelia Garvey of USC at 75-69-72—216, Alyaa Abdulghany of USC at 71-71-77—219 and Annabel Wilson of UCLA at 74-71-75—220.
Momoka Kobori of Pepperdine shot 73-76-72—221 to tie for eighth with Brooke Riley of Northwestern, who finished at 75-73-73—221, and Malia Nam of USC, who came in at 77-69-75—221.
Gioia Carpinelli led San Diego State at 75-72-76—223, while Caroline Cantlay of Cal Poly (SLO) tied for 19th at 78-74-74—226, Toni Sottile of San Francisco tied for 21st at 76-76-75—227, and Kiran Sangha of Cal State Northridge totaled 76-80-79—235 to wind up in a tie for 41st that included Matadors teammate Brianna Steger, who finished at 77-76-82—235.
Rounding out the scoring for team champion USC was Allisen Corpuz in a tie for 11th at 77-73-72—222. Gabriela Ruffels, who won her second individual title for the Trojans in the Rebel Beach Intercollegiate, was forced to withdraw because of an injury during the first round in San Luis Obispo.
“We obviously missed Gabriela and hope to get her back as soon as possible,” Silverstein said. “I know she’s thrilled that her teammates were able to pick her up and get this done. This course is incredibly dicey and it took tons of discipline from Alyaa, Amelia, Allisen and Malia to finish this off with a win.”
USC plays next in the Clover Cup on March 13-15 in Mesa, Ariz.
For complete results, visit http://results.golfstat.com//public/leaderboards/gsnav.cfm?pg=participants&tid=20608
