Very few teams can go nearly a year without a win.

But in golf, when tournament fields often include eight or more programs and top-ranked teams dominate week after week, first-place finishes can be hard to come by.

After almost a year of waiting, that drought is finally over for the Bruins.

Then-No. 23 UCLA women’s golf secured a first-place finish at the Therese Hession Regional Challenge in Palos Verdes Estates, California, on Tuesday, overtaking a 16-team field with a score of 8-under 844. At the end of the three-day affair, the Bruins were the only squad to finish under par, beating second-place and then-No. 11 Texas by 11 strokes.

“The thing that was most impressive that I observed was their composure on the course,” coach Alicia Um Holmes said. “They didn’t really let things get to them, especially since this course is so challenging. They just rolled with it and kept going and stayed present.”

The win marked UCLA’s first tournament victory since the Bruin Wave Invitational last February, which was spearheaded by strong individual finishes, with four of the five competing Bruins placing in the top 15 out of a field of 88 athletes.

Sophomore Jenny Lee headlined the UCLA squad, posting a career-low 54-hole score of 5-under 208 to tie for first place. The Baylor transfer held the outright lead heading into the final day, but Texas’s Farah O’Keefe – ranked No. 5 in the nation – carded a 2-under 69 to match Lee’s total and force a sudden-death playoff.

O’Keefe pulled away with the playoff win after holing a chip shot, earning medalist honors over Lee. Still, Lee is no stranger to victory, having won the Windy City Classic in September.

“I’m proud of myself for finishing first in our first season tournament, but I think I’m more happy that our team won this tournament [in a] very strong field,” Lee said.

Freshman Kacey Ly also notched a top-five finish as well, recording a 3-under 210 highlighted by a team-best 4-under 67 performance in the final round to place fourth overall.

The Temple City, California, local climbed 32 spots between the first and third rounds after opening the tournament in 36th place – last among the Bruins – with a 3-over 74 day one performance.

“I just got more comfortable,” Ly said. “I try not to think about my overall score, just taking one shot at a time and seeing where that leads me.”

Angela Liu peaked at third place after notching five birdies in the second round. The sophomore followed up the performance with five bogeys and a double bogey in the third round, dropping to a 12th-place tie with a 2-over 215.

Senior Meghan Royal tied for 15th place after an up-and-down tournament. She opened with an even-par round before seven bogeys on day two dropped her to 6-over. A final-round push, hallmarked by seven birdies, catapulted her from 38th place to a top-15 finish.

The group was rounded out by freshman GaEun Athena Yoo, who shot 9-over and tied for 43rd after falling from the seventh-place tie she held in the opening round.

“Going into the tournament, I told the team, ‘PV (Palos Verdes) is going to test every facet of your game – physical and mental,’” Holmes said. “It’s a very hilly golf course. It’s on the side of the Palos Verdes hillside, and so there’s a lot of uneven lies that you get out there, so you never have a flat shot.”

Multiple athletes noted that the greens played especially fast, meaning smoother grass allowed the ball to roll farther and demanded greater precision on approach shots and putts.

UCLA’s victory was especially significant, as it bested No. 2 USC by 25 shots after falling 3.5-1.5 to its crosstown rival the previous week. The Trojans ended the tournament at 17-over, good for sixth place.

“Any time you compete against USC is a good day,” Um Holmes said. “Getting a loss in the desert, it obviously doesn’t feel good – we wanted to win. But at the same time, it got our competitive juices flowing, and it told us what we needed to work on heading into PV (Palos Verdes). In a way, it was a good thing.”

The tournament also fell in the thick of the squad’s midterm season. Coach Holmes said this season’s schedule has been particularly hectic, noting that athletes were studying between rounds and that she dropped off Ly and Yoo at a midterm exam immediately after the tournament’s conclusion.

But the work isn’t over for the Bruins, who are set to tee off at the Alice and John Wallace Classic on Feb. 14.