WoMen's Golf Falls to Ninth at SDSU Farms

RANCHO SANTA FE, Calif. – The 54th-ranked Miami Hurricanes women’s golf team matched its first-round score with a 309, slipping one spot to ninth place Monday after the second round at the SDSU Farms Invitational.

At 42-over 618, Miami is one stroke behind No. 37 Cal (41-over 617) for eighth and two strokes behind No. 22 Texas A&M (40-over 616) for sixth. No. 1 USC extended its lead to a 13-stroke margin at 11-over 587. No. 45 UNLV is in second at 24-over 600, followed by No. 8 Arizona and No. 31 Pepperdine in a third-place tie at 28-over 604.

USC’s Sophia Popov fired a second-round 69 and is the only golfer under par through 36 holes at 1-under 143. Northwestern’s Kaitlin Park is in second at 1-over 145, followed by Pepperdine’s Liv Cheng in third at 2-over 146.

“Considering how challenging the course is, we’re just six strokes out of sixth place,” head coach Patti Rizzo said. “Tomorrow is our last regular-season round, so I hope we can end it on a positive note.”

Leading the Canes after 36 holes is junior Carina Cuculiza. She opened the second round tied for 46th place but fired a day-two 72 to jump 23 spots to 23rd place at 8-over 152. Cuculiza was one of only seven golfers to shoot even-par or better during Monday’s second round.

“Carina had a great round today and Christina played well yesterday but was off today,” Rizzo said. “If we can get all the girls playing well at the same time, we could really make up ground.”

Miami’s leading golfer, sophomore Leticia Ras-Anderica, had the misfortune of posting a quadruple-bogey on the par-5 No. 3, but she bounced back to shoot 1-over over the remaining 15 holes. Ras-Anderica is tied for 25th overall at 9-over 153.

Sophomore Rika Park is tied for 39th after shooting a 5-over 77 on Monday. Freshman Christina Ocampo, who was tied for eighth through 18 holes, is tied for 43rd at 14-over 158, followed by Laura Hendee in 76th place at 27-over 171.

The Miami Hurricanes will be paired with Texas A&M and Cal for Tuesday’s final round, teeing off No. 1 beginning at 11:30 a.m. ET. Live scoring will be available at www.golfstatresults.com.