SAN LUIS OBISPO, Calif. – Sophomore Albane Valenzuela finished second at the Bruin Wave Invitational as the defending champion Stanford women's golf team placed third Tuesday among the 16-team field.
Valenzuela (72-73-72) was 1-over for the 54-hole tournament at San Luis Obispo Country Club, and nearly upended UCLA's Lilia Vu (-1) for medalist honors. Vu went 3-under on her back nine to earn the comeback win.
Valenzuela opened her round with a birdie on the par-5 first, then rattled off 14 straight pars before a one-stroke setback on 16.
"We didn't have our best stuff this week but managed to dig deep today and post the low round," Margot and Mitch Milias Director of Women's Golf Anne Walker said. "Albane handled the course and conditions well; it was some of the best golf she has played all year. We will be working on our perseverance and determination in the coming events, so that even on the bad days, we keep ourselves in the tournament."
Stanford (303-309-294) posted the best score of any team during Tuesday's final round. The Cardinal was 42-over for the tournament, behind only USC (+32) and UCLA (+40).
Stanford won the event with a 26-over 902 in 2017.
Mika Liu fired an even-par 72 to jump into 16th at 13-over. Joining Liu and Valenzuela in the top-20 were Andrea Lee (74-79-77) and Ziyi Wang (79-78-73) at 14-over. The latter pair tied for 18th.
Shannon Aubert (82-81-82) tied for 67th at 29-over and Kelsey Zeng (80-86-80) was 69th at 30-over.
Stanford has a few weeks off until returning to action at the San Diego State March Mayhem (March 26-28) in Rancho Santa Fe, California.
