Highlanders Finish 5th at Big West Women’s Golf Championship

Monday, April 19

Yorba Linda, Calif.

UC Riverside

5th

Big West Conference Championship

Vanessa Betancourt at the 2021 Big West Women's Golf Championship

Freshman Vanessa Betancourt finished tied for fourth at her first Big West Championship.

Highlanders Finish 5th at Big West Women’s Golf Championship

4/21/2021 3:21:00 PM | Women's Golf

Final Results

YORBA LINDA, Calif. – Freshman Vanessa Betancourt tied for fourth at 1-over for the tournament as she and fellow freshman Kate Villegas shot 1-under Wednesday to help UC Riverside complete a fifth-place finish at the Big West Women's Golf Championship.

Only Long Beach State shot a better Round 3 as a team on Wednesday on the par-72 Yorba Linda Country Club. The Highlanders' third-round score of 287 ties for the fourth-best round at any tournament in UC RIverside history. See full final results here.

"We didn't really know what to expect," said head coach Mary Ritchie. "In our opening round we struggled with putting, but it just got better and better after that. We looked like a different team Tuesday and Wednesday. The team was so pumped."

Villegas, named to the All-Big West second team for her performance, sank four birdies on the final 18 holes to lead the Highlanders in that category, followed by three from Betancourt. Senior Nao Bando shot for par on Wednesday to finish her third round tied for 24th, while sophomore Mylan Hirata was one stroke behind into the clubhouse to finish her tournament tied for 17th. Sophomore Nicole Le finished 39th with a final-round 82.

The performance by Betancourt, who earned honorable mention All-Big West honors, ranks among the best in Highlander history by an individual at the conference tournament, joining the fourth-place finishes by Amelia Ek in 2011 (tie) and Paris Griffith in 2016. Jakeishya Le was second in 2017.

Coach Ritchie said the future is extremely bright for her student-athletes considering the collective responsibility they took to seize their opportunity to play this spring. "I think of my team and this year, we only started practicing in February and our season was cut short," she said. "But through it all we've had this attitude that we are just grateful to get to play, finally, after all this time."

Overall the Highlanders held their position with strong golf in the final round of the Big West Women's Golf Championship after climbing into fifth place in Round 2. Cal Poly won the team title at 5-over for the 54 holes, while Holland Shourds of Long Beach was the individual champion, finishing at 2-under.