A nearby stop in a five-tournament stretch in the Golden State kicks off Monday at the Bruins’ home tournament of the season.

Though it is a 30-minute drive from campus, the two-day Bruin Wave Invitational presented by Capillus serves as the home tournament for No. 14 UCLA women’s golf, hosted at the Valencia Country Club in Santa Clarita, California. UCLA will tee off against top-ranked competition Monday. This includes No. 1 Stanford and No. 10 Pepperdine, with whom they share the invitational.

“Valencia is one of our home courses that we do qualify at a lot,” said freshman Kacey Ly. “Valencia is a course where you need to strategize. So being able to know where to hit it, where to miss, where to not miss is a pretty good factor and is giving us an upper hand.”

The Temple City, California, local, led UCLA’s charge to 3rd place at the Alice and John Wallace Classic Feb. 14-16. With an even-par score of 213 over the three rounds, Ly was the highest-ranked Bruin, tying for fourth place. Her second round mark of 2-under 69 was the lowest of any Bruin throughout the three-day tournament.

The team-leading score clinched a second straight Big Ten Freshman of the Week honor for Ly.

“She’s a little bit more calm and is gaining some confidence from her play, but I think what she’s really done a great job of from fall to now is getting a little bit more consistent with her ball striking,” said coach Alicia Um Holmes. “She’s more accurate off the tee, and her short irons are giving her a lot of opportunities for putts at birdie.”

Sophomore Angela Liu was the only other Bruin in the lineup to place within the top 20 overall, finishing in 12th place with a 4-over 213. (I think the CQ says 217 for Angela?)

Liu placed third at last season’s Bruin Wave Invitational, alongside then-freshman Francesca Fiorellini, who won the tournament. The top rankings led the Bruins to their only tournament win of the 2024-2025 season.

But the lineup this season looks quite different than that of the previous campaign. Since the beginning of last season, then-seniors Caroline Canales and Zoe Antoinette Campos stepped away from collegiate golf in pursuit of professional play. Fiorellini also announced her transfer to LSU in August.

“We’ve got six freshmen and sophomores combined,” Um Holmes said. “So our team is very young – but they’ve got great potential, and it’s just a matter of us working on getting a little bit more consistent because they can score really low. All of them have it in them, but it’s just that their bad days aren’t as good as we’d like to see.”

As it often does with golf, the weather can greatly influence a field. With the recent rainstorms throughout Southern California, Um Holmes said she is unsure that the Bruins’ home-field advantage will prevail.

“We just had a huge rainstorm pass through, so I don’t know exactly what the course conditions are going to be like,” Um Holmes said. “If they are softer than what it was last year, then that advantage is possibly not as great. But if the superintendent could get the greens up and firm, then, yes, we will have a bigger advantage.”

Rain is not forecasted during the two-day tournament teeing off Monday, and slightly warmer conditions – as the Bruins are used to – are expected.

UCLA Athletics did not make a second athlete available for interview.