Riverside—The 2016 Big West Champion UC Riverside Women's Golf team begins its fall season in the 7th Annual Rose City Collegiate September 26-27 at Langdon Farms Golf Club in Aurora, OR.

Last season the Highlanders won three tournaments, highlighted by the first Big West Championship in program history in April, when they overcame a three-shot deficit in the final round of the conference tournament at Kapalua's Bay Course (story).
 
Paris Griffith was the team's top finisher in fourth, and First Team All-Conference selection Hannah Facchini was sixth.
 
The Highlanders went on to play in the Stanford NCAA Regional, where Big West Co-Freshman of the Year Jakeishya Le finished T15—just three strokes shy of advancing to the NCAA Championship event (story).
 
Haley Wian was selected as Big West Female Scholar Athlete of the Year for a second consecutive year, and also was presented the Hueston M. Margaret Harper Scholar Athlete of the year award. Wian, along with Facchini, was named to the conference's All-Academic team (story).
 
Head Coach Mary Ritchie returns the entire 2016 Championship team, and adds three new faces to the squad: sophomore transfer Hana Furuichi (San Diego, CA/San Diego State/Torrey Pines HS), freshman Emily Keeler (Riverside, CA/Centennial HS), and freshman Hailey White (Danville, CA/Monte Vista HS).
 
The Highlanders fly up to Portland on Saturday, and play a practice round Sunday, before teeing off in an 8 am shotgun start Monday.
 
Day one in the Rose City Collegiate features 36 holes of continuous play, followed by Tuesday's final 18, which begins at 8 am off holes #1 and #10 (live scoring).
 
The team played seven rounds of qualifying to determine the lineup for the season's opening event. Expected to compete for the Highlanders are: Hannah Facchini, Paris Griffith, Jakeishya Le, Hailey White, and Hana Furuichi.  Haley Wian and Yuri Ahn will compete as individuals.
 
In last season's opening event, the Wyoming Desert Classic, also held on September 26-27, UCR bested the 14-team field to win its first trophy of the season (story).
 
Langdon Farms Golf Club plays host to 15 teams and 87 players at 6057 yards with a par of 72.
 
Rose City Collegiate Field:
 
Boise State
Cal State Fullerton*
Concordia
Eastern Washington
Montana
Northern Arizona
Northern Colorado
Oregon State
Portland State (host)
Sacramento State
Seattle
Southern Utah
Texas Rio Grande Valley
UC Riverside*
Weber State
 
* Big West