This post was updated May 22 at 10:54 p.m.

One year removed from a championship round appearance, the Bruins were unable to qualify past the second cut of the NCAA tournament.

No. 5 seed UCLA women’s golf closed out its season Monday, finishing 12th in the NCAA championships at the Omni La Costa Resort & Spa in Carlsbad, California. The Bruins finished the fourth round of stroke play 19-over par, with the last day being their best at only 1-over. Their fourth round brought them within four strokes of the eight teams that would advance to head-to-head play.

“It just came down to a matter of execution in the end,” said coach Alicia Um Holmes. “Unfortunately, we had a few rounds, particularly in the first and the second round, where we were doing well, but we just made a couple too many doubles, which really cost us in the end.”

In the first two rounds, the Bruins stacked up 39 bogeys, with nine being doubles. They added another 41 and two in the latter two rounds, respectively. These early mistakes proved costly in the late stages of the competition when UCLA was left to make up four strokes to avoid the cut-off.

The loss came after the team narrowly qualified for a championship bid. The Bruins only barely qualified for regionals, placing seventh in a field of 18 in the Big Ten tournament. Once they made it to the regional, they placed fifth out of 12 teams – the lowest ranking they could earn to secure their spot in Carlsbad.

Um Holmes said the moment at the Big Ten tournament encapsulated what the team is about. The team knew where it stood and what was on the line, so it fought for every shot, she said, securing their 50% wins in head-to-head competition needed to save its season.

Freshman Angela Liu placed best among the Bruins in the championship, finishing tied for 24th with 2-over 290. Though it was her first appearance in the NCAA tournament, Liu had played the course before, which proved to be beneficial to her game.

“Going out there this week, I was just trying to play my game,” Liu said. “I wasn’t really thinking of what position I was in – I was just trying to play best for the team.”

Senior Tiffany Le rounded out her college career tied for 47th, shooting 8-over 296m. Despite her being a senior, this was also Le’s first NCAA tournament.

The wind was a challenge for UCLA, adding to the obstacle of the firmer greens, which move slower.

“I think our team plays pretty good under pressure, and so I think our team saw it more as just a challenge of proving others wrong,” Le said. “We can still be amongst the high awareness teams.”

Last season, UCLA was within striking distance of the trophy, only to have it slip through its fingertips to Stanford in the final round of matchplay. It would have been UCLA’s first NCAA Championship title since 2011, but instead, the squad came home with second place.

“I’m pleasantly, kind of surprised at how we performed,” Um Holmes said. “I knew we had it in us, but it hasn’t been coming out the entire season, but the team really believed in their abilities and just played their games, and we were able to do something really great.”