SANTA ANA, Calif.—The Gonzaga University women's golf team is in good shape to move up the leaderboard after day one of the UC Irvine Invitational Presented by Kia, sitting within 10 strokes of numerous highly-ranked teams in the tournament held at Santa Ana Country Club in Santa Ana, Calif.
"The team fought hard today," said Gonzaga women's golf head coach Brad Rickel. "Our short game is showing signs of early season rust, though. We will have to chip and putt better tomorrow if we want to finish well. If we have some fight in us tomorrow, we will have a good finish."
Sophomore Ciera Min is the highest-ranked Bulldog after carding rounds of 1-over-par 73 and even-par 72 Monday. She carded seven birdies and an eagle throughout her two rounds, getting the eagle on No. 18 in the first round. With 145 strokes (+1), she's tied for tied for 15th in the tournament. The start equals her best start to a tournament so far this season as she also counted 145 strokes during the first two rounds of the Las Vegas Collegiate Showdown in October.
Next up is senior Alice Kim, who's tied for 26th with 148 strokes (+4) after day one. She also carded seven birdies en route to the tally, including three in her first round 74 (+2) and four more to another 74 in the afternoon.
Fellow senior Han Wu is just three strokes behind Kim, sitting T-38 with 151 strokes (+7) on the day. After a 6-over-par 78 during the morning, Wu settled down and carded 14 pars in the second loop for a round of 73, one stroke over par. She currently is tied for the third-highest amount of pars in the field.
Three strokes behind Wu, freshman Dania Uy is tied for 53rd with 154 strokes (+10). She counted rounds of 76 (+4) and 78 (+6) on the day after posting 24 holes at par or better. Rounding out the Gonzaga lineup, Raychelle Santos is tied for 64th with 159 strokes (+15). The junior started her day with a 78 (+6) and ended with an 81 (+9).
"Alice and Ciera were solid all day today, and Han had a great second round as well," Rickel said. "We just have to eliminate the unneeded bogeys by getting some of the easy up-and-downs."
As a team, the Bulldogs are tied for 10th with fifth-ranked Stanford at 598 strokes, 22 above par. They're within nine strokes of sixth place as both SMU and UC Davis are tied for sixth with 589 strokes (+13). UNLV and WCC foe Pepperdine, both among GolfWeek's top 20 rankings, are tied for eighth at 595, 19 strokes above par and only three strokes in front of Gonzaga.
Washington has the team lead with a two-round total of 566 (-10) and USC's Gabriella Then holds the individual lead with 138 strokes, six under par.
The Zags will wrap up the UC Irvine Invitational Presented by Kia on Tuesday, Feb. 24. Their tee times will begin at 8:25 a.m., again at Santa Ana Country Club.
