SAN DIEGO – The San Diego State women's golf team continues its busy fall schedule this week when it travels to the Rocky Mountains to partake in the Golfweek Conference Challenge, Sept. 23-25, in Wolcott, Colorado.
The Aztecs will play 18 holes on each of the tournament's three days, beginning at 10 a.m. MT/9 a.m. PT on the par-72, 6,309-yard Tom Fazio Course at Red Sky Golf Club.
A total of 18 different Division I conferences will be represented by one of their member institutions at the 11th annual event hosted by Golfweek. Making its fifth consecutive appearance, SDSU will battle the likes of Campbell, Central Arkansas, Delaware, Denver, East Tennessee State, Kennesaw State, Nebraska, North Carolina State, Ole Miss, Pepperdine, Sacramento State, South Alabama, SMU, TCU, UCLA, UC Riverside and Xavier.
Leading the Aztecs' jaunt to the Centennial State are sophomores Sara Kjellker (Hollviken, Sweden), Gioia Carpinelli (Boppelsen, Switzerland) and senior Fernanda Escauriza (Asuncion, Paraguay), while freshman Bernice Olivarez Ilas (Ayala Alabang, Philippines) and sophomore April Ranches (San Diego, Calif.) comprise the remainder of head coach Leslie Spalding's starting five.
SDSU is coming off a fifth-place performance two weeks ago at the Branch Law Firm/Dick McGuire Invitational in Albuquerque, N.M., where it shot a combined 1-under-par 863, tying for third on the program's all-time charts for lowest 54-hole team score.
Individually, the Aztecs were led by Carpinelli and Kjellker, who tied for eighth after each fired a 3-under 213 for the week. Among Carpinelli's cards was a career-best 6-under 66 in round one, which is tied for the third-best 18-hole total in school history.
In addition, Escauriza finished in a tie for 23rd at 3-over 219, while Olivarez Ilas landed in the 32nd position with a 5-over 221 in her collegiate debut. Conversely, Ranches was inactive for the New Mexico trip and will be making her fourth career start this week in Colorado.
San Diego State posted a 31-over 895 at the event last year to finish in 10th place, 17 shots behind SMU (+14) for fifth place, while Virginia Tech (+18) took sixth, followed by Georgia (+20), TCU (+24) and East Tennessee State (+28).
Buoyed by three top-five individual placements, UCLA set a 54-hole tournament scoring record with a collective 32-under 832 to win by a mammoth 33 strokes over runner-up Pepperdine (+1), while Denver (+9) finished third, followed by Campbell (+12).
The Bruins' Mariel Galdano, who captured medalist honors last year after firing a 13-under 203, will be looking to defend her individual title, while Denver's Mary Weinstein (3rd, -10) is also back in the mix along with SMU's Kennedy Pedigo (T-10th, -1) and ETSU's Tereza Melecka (T-10th, -1).
Carpinelli is the Aztecs' top returner from the 2018 installment of the Golfweek Conference Challenge, where she fired an even-par 216 to finish alone in 12th, while Kjellker (27th, +5) and Escauriza (T-71st, +18) will be looking to improve on their respective place from last season at Red Sky Golf Club.
SDSU took home back-to-back team titles at the tournament in 2015 and 2016, with former Aztec All-American Emma Henrikson capturing medalist honors as a senior in the earlier edition. With her crown, Henrikson became the first player in the event's history to finish with a double-digit score below par after carding a 10-under 206, which is tied for third for lowest 54-hole total on the program's all-time charts.
Located near the renowned Vail Ski Area, the Tom Fazio Course features open sage covered hills and dense aspen forest around a highland lake. Fazio's design team has made a meticulous effort to maintain the site's indigenous vegetation by relocating more than 23,000 native plants into nurseries for re-planting throughout the course.
Following the Golfweek Conference Challenge, San Diego State will have a quick turnaround for its ensuing road trip to the Pacific Northwest for the inaugural Molly Murphy Crowley Collegiate Invitational, Sept. 30-Oct. 1, at Waverley Country Club in Portland, Oregon.