Bears Stand In Second Place At USF Intercollegiate

Junior Cristina Ochoa is just two strokes off the lead at the USF Intercollegiate.

WGOLF9/12/2022 9:34 PM | By: Cal Athletics

Three Cal Players In Top-10 Heading Into Final Round

SAN FRANCISCO – The Cal women’s golf team placed three individuals in the top-10 after the first two rounds of the season-opening USF Intercollegiate and stands in second place heading into Tuesday’s final round at The Olympic Club’s Ocean Course.

Junior Cristina Ochoa shot back-to-back 69s and is at 4-under par for the tournament, just two strokes behind leader Ty Akabane of UCLA. Graduate transfer Annika Borrelli and junior Mika Jin are each at even-par and tied for ninth place overall.

The Bears are at 2-under par for the tournament and trail No. 5 UCLA by two strokes on the team leaderboard.

“It was a really solid start,” Cal head coach Nancy McDaniel said. “As a team, you always want to be in that last group. They earned that for themselves today. Tomorrow we get to go out and have some fun.”

The Bears were 4-over as a team in the first round but had the best round of the day by any school in the 10-team field in the second round, carding a 6-under 278. Four of Cal’s five players in the lineup shot par or better in the second round.

Including sophomore Jieming Yang, who is at 2-over par for the tournament, the Bears have four players in the top-15 individually.

Ochoa, Cal’s second-best returning scorer from last season, played a bogey-free first round with a couple of birdies to go 2-under. She then registered five birdies with three bogeys in the second round.

“No surprises there – Cristina’s game is just really well-rounded right now,” McDaniel said. “She just has a good, strong mindset, and she’s enjoying that. It doesn’t surprise me where she is.”

The Bears tee off for Tuesday’s final round at 10:12 a.m.