UCLA tries to keep great expectations under wraps

Tuesday, April 21, 1998

UCLA tries to keep great expectations under wraps

WOMEN’S GOLF: Team has last year’s fifth-place overall finish to
try surpassing

By David Arnold

Daily Bruin Contributor

Monday marked the beginning of the three-day Pac-10
Championships for the women’s golf team, but UCLA is trying to
avoid expectations.

"We try to stay out of expectations," said head coach Jackie
Steinman before the team left for the Tijeras Creek Golf Club in
Rancho Santa Margarita.

There are numerous reasons for the Bruins, who are ranked 16th
in the nation, to avoid expectations. Not least among them would be
the difficulty of repeating last year’s third-place finish in the
conference, and NCAA Championship appearance in which the Bruins
finished fifth overall.

After the first round of play, the Bruins stand in sixth place
at 23 over par as a team. Arizona (2-over par after one round), who
is ranked third nationally, currently holds the lead over defending
champion and second-ranked Arizona State by six strokes.

UCLA senior Amandine Vincent shot a 2-over par Monday to stay in
an eight-way tie for fifth place individually. The French native
shot back-to-back scores of 37 to end with 74 strokes for the day.
Other Bruins stand at 26th (freshman Leilani Bagby), 35th
(sophomore Alexandra Gasser), 37th (freshman Alicia Um) and 45th
(freshman Laura Moffat).

"This is a very young team," said Steinman of her Bruin squad of
whom four are freshmen, "We should make regionals, but it’ll be a
challenge to make nationals."

The par 72 (6,120 yards) course, which will be hosted by USC,
should be a good neutral site for the championships. The Bruins
have only played there once this year, but that’s more than most
teams in the Pac-10. Monday, only Jenna Daniels of Arizona shot
under par (-3), while only two others finished even.

"We’ve been getting better every tournament," said Steinman.
Much of the credit for this improvement is due to the senior
leadership of Vincent and Betty Chen.

Vincent has won two tournaments this year (the Dick McGuire
Invitational in September with a 4-under par, and the LSU Fairwood
Invitational in March with a four-over par). Not only does she lead
the team in stroke average (74.7), but she has been the Bruins’ top
finisher in six of their eight events, and she is currently ranked
second in the nation in putting on greens (1.8) and 10th in par 4
scoring (4.2).

In their last event before the championships, the Bruins
finished fifth with a 36-hole score of 610 on the Stanford Golf
Course at the Stanford Intercollegiates.

Two rounds remain to decide this year’s Pac-10 Champion, with
the first tee time at 8:06 a.m. this morning.