No. 2 women's golf to face No. 1 USC in PING/ASU Invitational

It has come down to a classic rivalry. The No. 2 UCLA women’s golf team is neck and neck with No. 1 USC for the top seed in the West going into the postseason.

To gain sole possession of the top spot, UCLA has to beat USC in its next two tournaments.

If history is to be repeated, this week’s PING/ASU Invitational is a chance for the Bruins to get ahead.

At last year’s event, the team’s fate was uncertain until the final day, when now-junior Stephanie Kono had a blowout day, helping the team make up a 12-shot deficit, rocketing the Bruins to first.

Kono, the No. 9 player in the country, placed eighth at the Aztec Invitational earlier this month, securing her fourth top-10 finish of the season. The team as a whole has placed in the top three in its last six competitions, and three of those were first-place finishes.

The Bruins will stick with their usual lineup: Kono, freshman Ani Gulugian, redshirt sophomore Lee Lopez, senior Glory Yang, sophomore Tiffany Lua and junior Brianna Do, who will be competing as an individual.

Barring any injuries, this figures to be the lineup the team will use for the remainder of the regular season. The group has the best scoring averages and the top finishes of the team; according to coach Carrie Forsyth, those six golfers are clearly the team’s top players.

As it is, things are working out quite nicely for the Bruins. They have experience on Arizona State’s golf course, and of the 17 teams that will compete at the tournament, UCLA faced nine of them at the Aztec Invitational, finishing better than eight of those teams.

Additionally, the team’s practice schedule this past week has been solid. The Aztec Invitational came after the marathon run of finals week, and there was a “hit-or-miss” week of practice preceding the tournament, according to Forsyth.

Last but not least, the competition is in Tempe, Ariz., which means one thing: 90-degree weather.

The sun will be a welcome change for the Bruins, who have seen cold, foggy or rainy weather at every tournament this spring.

In the Northrop Grumman Regional Challenge and the Aztec Invitational, bad weather conditions got in the way of the Bruins ““ out of their last five tournaments, those were the only two in which they did not place first.

Although UCLA will avoid bad weather in this tournament, it will need to improve its game in shoddy conditions.

The NCAA Championships this year are in College Station, Texas, where rain and thunderstorms wouldn’t be out of the realm of possibility.

To succeed in the postseason, the Bruins have to adjust to playing in both hot and cold weather, a skill that is difficult to work on when practicing in sunny Los Angeles.

For now, though, the team is only focusing on this competition.

Compiled by Emma Coghlan, Bruin Sports contributor.