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UH leads after the first day of college tourney

Hawaii’s Masuda on top in Anuenue Classic at Kapalua Bay Course

Baldwin High School graduate Kaylee Shimizu, a Utah Valley University sophomore, shot 80 in the first round of the Anuenue Spring Break Classic on Monday. The Maui News / ROBERT COLLIAS photos

KAPALUA — The University of Hawaii women’s golf team plays four tournaments each academic year in the 50th state, but perhaps none is more important to the program than the Anuenue Spring Break Classic at the Kapalua Bay Course.

Hawaii is leading the event at 2-over 290, six strokes in front of 29th-ranked Louisville. Kaci Masuda, a UH junior from Pearl City, Oahu, leads the individual race by a stroke at 3-under 69.

Hawaii has not won a women’s team title since the 2015 Hobble Creek Classic in Utah and has just three team titles in its history as a program.

“It’s beautiful out here, the course is in great shape, the greens are great and obviously the girls are playing really good, too, which is an added bonus,” first-year coach Stephen Bidne said. “This is a good course. I mean, the wind can whip out here, so you have to be very patient out there. . . . We did a really good job.”

UH is hosting the event for the sixth time — Bidne and Masuda each know how crucial the event is as the final tuneup for the Big West Conference tournament April 15-17 in Irvine, Calif.

UH’s Kaci Masuda watches her tee shot on No. 10 at the Kapalua Bay Course. She leads the Anuenue Spring Break Classic.

“It is very important, it is like a warmup for Big West, and of course, we want to play the best that we can when we play the Big West,” Masuda said after posting the only round under 70, which left her in the lead by one stroke. “Just shooting low always is pretty nice, especially since we’ve been working so hard for all this.”

Masuda reflected on her round that finished with a flurry — three birdies in the final four holes, including a 1-foot tap-in birdie on 17 and a 30-foot birdie on 18.

“I feel like I played pretty well today compared to the past times I’ve played here,” Masuda said. “I was pretty consistent with my short game. I was sticking pins all day, which was pretty nice. (A win here) would be sweet.

“This course is pretty tough, the competitors here are pretty tough as well. I would be very fortunate to win this.”

Bidne became the 13th coach in UH history after four seasons at Northern Colorado, his alma mater.

UH coach Stephen Bidne watches the action with redshirt freshman Malia Ebersberger.

Emma Lower, a UH freshman from Mesa, Ariz., shot 72 and is tied for fifth. Hawaii sophomore Megan Ratcliffe is tied for 10th at 74, and freshman Sahara Washington is one more stroke back in a tie for 17th.

“They’ve been playing really good, especially for being a young team,” Bidne said. “Starting three freshmen, a sophomore and a junior the whole year, so they did a really good job staying patient and really executing our course management.”

The only Maui Interscholastic League graduate in the field is Utah Valley sophomore Kaylee Shimizu. The Baldwin High School graduate parred her first eight holes, but struggled as the wind picked up as the day wore on — most rounds took nearly six hours to complete — and she finished at 8-over 80, good for a tie for 57th.

“It was kind of rough out there, I was missing a lot of putts for par, so that kind of hurt a little bit on the course,” Shimizu said. “I always love coming back to Kapalua and Maui. My family’s here, so it always feels like home.”

Cal Poly’s Sophie Bergland aced the 138-yard 17th with an 8-iron. She was in a tie for seventh at 73.

“It looked good, so I knew it was close,” Bergland said. “But I didn’t know it was in until I checked the hole. It was like 3 feet short of the pin and then rolled in, so it was a pretty good shot.

“That was my first hole-in-one ever, so it was very, very cool. When we saw it was in there we all started freaking out.”

Santa Clara’s Kristin Le, a Punahou graduate, is in a tie for third at 71.

“It was kind of like a throwback when I played junior golf here in Hawaii because we traveled to all the different islands, and I love playing on Maui,” Le said. “It’s nice to be back, I always love coming home.”

The 54-hole event continues today and Wednesday at Kapalua.

* Robert Collias can be reached at rcollias@maui news.com.

Women’s College Golf

Anuenue Spring break classic

Monday’s First-Round Leaders

At Kapalua Bay Course

Team Scores  

1  Hawaii 290          +2 

2  Louisville 296          +8 

3  Oregon State  301          +13 

4  Santa Clara  303          +15 

5  Long Beach State 304          +16 

6  Utah Valley  305          +17 

T7  UC Davis 306          +18 

T7  Cal Poly  306          +18 

T9  UC Irvine 307          +19 

T9  CSU Fullerton 307          +19 

11  Idaho 309          +21 

12  East Tennessee St. 310          +22 

13  UC – Riverside 312          +24 

Individual Scores  

Kaci Masuda  Hawaii  69          -3   

Ana Margarita Raga  UVU   70          -2   

Lauren Hartlage  Louisville  71          -1   

Kristin Le  Santa Clara  71          -1   

Emma Lower Hawaii 72           E   

Holland Shourds  LBSU 72           E   

Kristin Engle  Louisville   73          +1   

Sophie Bergland  Cal Poly   73          +1   

Avery French  UC Irvine   73          +1   

Hannah Facchini  UC River 74          +2   

Susie Cavanagh  OSU 74          +2   

Courtney Sharkey  CSUF 74          +2   

Olivia Cason  Louisville  74          +2   

Megan Ratcliffe  Hawaii  74          +2   

Breanne Jones   UC Irvine  74          +2   

Madison Wood   UC Davis  74          +2   

Michelle Kim  Idaho  75          +3   

Olivia Benzin  OSU   75          +3   

Elsa Lundquist  CSUF   75          +3   

Sahara Washington Hawaii 75          +3   

Ellie Slama  OSU   76          +4   

Nicole Schroeder OSU   76          +4   

Hee Ying Loy  ETSU   76          +4   

Hannah Sun  Davis   76          +4   

Justine Lauer  UVU  76          +4   

Samantha Hutchison Davis 76          +4   

Haley Tygret LBSU  76          +4   

Ankita Kedlaya  ETSU   77          +5   

Pauline Welker  CSUF   77          +5   

Sophie Hausmann  Idaho  77          +5   

Yoonhee Kim Davis   77          +5   

Chloe Wong  Santa Clara  77          +5   

Cara Barker  LBSU  77          +5   

Emily Sumner  Santa Clara  77          +5   

Caroline Cantlay  Cal Poly  77          +5   

Rei Nakatani Davis  77          +5   

Janet Yeo  UC Irvine  77          +5   

Christine Danielsson  Davis 77          +5   

K. Sararat  ETSU 78          +6   

Valeria Patino  Idaho  78          +6   

Molly Skapik  Louisville  78          +6   

K. Moreno  Santa Clara 78          +6   

Jamie Harada  Cal Poly  78          +6   

Amanda Minni OSU 78          +6   

Tyra Tonkham  Hawaii  78          +6 

Kaley In  UC Irvine  78          +6   

Desiree Gillaspy  Cal Poly  78          +6   

Jacqueline Twitty Louisville 79          +7   

Jakeishya Le  UC – River 79          +7   

Hailey White  UC – River 79          +7   

Laura Gerner  Idaho  79          +7   

Tereza Melecka  ETSU   79          +7   

Maria Davis  LBSU   79          +7   

Sabrina Li  UC Irvine   79          +7   

Jennifer Yu  LBSU  79          +7   

Carly Dehlin  UVU 79          +7   

Kendall Gray  Idaho  80          +8   

Hana Furuichi  UC – River 80          +8   

Jacqui Ngo  UC Irvine   80          +8   

Kaylee Shimizu  UVU   80          +8   

Sarah Busey  Santa Clara   80          +8   

Brittany Farrell  CSUF   81          +9   

Krista Twet  UC – River 81          +9   

Isabella Lesa  UVU   81          +9   

M. Muehlbauer Cal Poly 81          +9   

Felicia Medalla  CSUF 82        +10

Yeji Ahn  ETSU   86        +14   

Mari Nishiura  OSU 86        +14   

Lauren Kirkwood Hawaii   91        +19

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