Lilia Vu of UCLA captured the individual title and the top-ranked Bruins rallied to win the inaugural Battle at the Beach at Club Campestre San Jose in San Jose Del Cabo, Mexico.
The Bruins came from five strokes behind Oklahoma in the final round to collect their 12th victory in the last three seasons and give Coach Carrie Forsyth the 65th victory of her career in the final event of the Fall Season.
“Coming back in February, you kind of have to start over in a sense,” said Forsyth, whose Bruins claimed their third victory of the season. “We have a tremendous amount of talent and excellent players on our team, but the girls have the break, so as long as they give themselves enough time prior to coming back and don’t go on a three-month hiatus, they’ll come back stronger.
“ … The greens were a bit tricky. They looked slow and shaggy, but they were actually fairly fast and there were a lot of slopes and pretty big breaks.”
UCLA, which also won the Stanford Intercollegiate and the Nanea Pac-12 Preview this season, recorded a score of 282-285-272—839, 13-under-par, followed by Oklahoma at 281-281-280—842, Texas at 286-281-281—848 and Virginia at 290-291-284—865, while Auburn totaled 288-292-290—870 to tie for fifth with Houston, which finished at 283-297-290—870.
Baylor posted a score of 290-285-296—871 to tie for seventh with Wake Forest, which wound up at 290-296-285—871, while Vanderbilt was ninth at 299-290-287—876, followed by Mississippi State at 296-296-287—879.
Vu, a junior from Fountain Valley, recorded the fifth victory of her UCLA career with a score of 69-69-67—205, 8-under, followed by Jennifer Kupcho of Wake Forest at 67-70-69—206, Leonie Harm of Houston at 67-71-70—208, while Hannah Wood of Oklahoma shot 70-69-70—209 to tie for fourth with Sophia Schubert of Texas, who came in at 70-68-71—209.
Bethany Wu of UCLA carded a score of 72-72-66—210 to tie for sixth with Ana Ruiz of Oklahoma, who totaled 70-73-67—210, and Julienne Soo, also of Oklahoma, who wound up at 69-71-70—210, while Emilia Migliaccio of Wake Forest was ninth at 71-69-71—211, followed by Kaitlyn Papp of Texas at 71-72-69—212.
Rounding out the scoring for UCLA were Mariel Galdiano in a tie for 11th at 73-72-68—213, Patty Tavatanakit in a tie for 16th at 72-72-71—215, Clare Legaspi in a tie for 42nd at 69-76-77—222 and Vera Markevich in 80th at 84-81-74—239.
The Bruins begin their Spring Season in the Northrop Grumman Regional Challenge at Palos Verdes Golf Club in Palos Verdes Estates on Feb. 11-13.
