Dawgs Climb to Sixth at Pac-12s; Alvarez and Keh Sit in the Top 15

Tuesday, April 25

Tucson, AZ

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University of Washington

Pac-12 Championships

Dawgs Climb to Sixth at Pac-12s; Alvarez and Keh Sit in the Top 15

April 25, 2017 | Women's Golf

Photo Credit: James Wood/Pac-12 Conference

TUCSON, Arizona – The University of Washington women's golf team once again took an extremely windy golf course at the Pac-12 Championships but battled to climb one spot on the leaderboard and move into sixth place with a 24-over 600 (308-292). UW's round two score of 4-over 292 also tied for the third best of the day to help UW inch closer to the top five.

"I was pleased with how we responded to the conditions today, which were very similar to Monday's round," said head coach Mary Lou Mulflur. "The beautiful thing is that we didn't count any score over a bogey today and to do that in those conditions was a good thing to see from this young team. We just need to keep growing and working to carry these improvements over to tomorrow's final round."

Heading into Wednesday's final 18, Washington has three players in the top 30, two in the top 15 and all four who's scores counted Tuesday are in the top 40. The Huskies were one of two teams that were able to count four scorecards that did not have anything higher than a bogey on them and were the only team that had just one double bogey on all five scorecards combined on Tuesday.

UW's biggest climber on day two was sophomore Julianne Alvarez who carded a 2-under 70 to tie for the third-best round of the day overall. She jumped 16 spots on the leaderboard and is now tied for 11^th with a 4-over 148 (78-70). Alvarez showcased a very steady round, opening with birdies on two of the first six holes. Despite a blemish on the seventh, she finished the day at one under to tie her best 18-hole score of the season.

"Julianne just had a really, really impressive round, especially in that howling wind," added Mulflur. "She hit the ball really well and probably could have scored lower but to see her be steady throughout the day was good. It's mentally exhausting fighting that wind so she handled herself very well."

Alvarez sits 11 strokes off the lead, which is held by UCLA's Lilia Vu (7-under 137). UCLA's Bethany Wu is in second at 3-under 141 while Stanford's Andrea Lee is third at 2-under 142.

Just one stroke behind her is sophomore Wenyung Keh who's 3-over 75 moved her two-round total to 5-over 149 which is tied for 14^th. Keh's shaky first nine, in which she finished at 3-over, was followed by a solid even par following the turn to stay at 3-over for the day.

Another mover for UW on Tuesday was freshman Karen Miyamoto, as she jumped 17 spots into a tie for 26^th thanks to her round of 1-over 73 to put her at 10-over 154 (81-73) overall. She improved upon her day one score by eight strokes. The newcomer had just three bogeys on the day, the second fewest by a Dawg, and went par on 13 of 18 holes along with two birdies.

"Karen was very businesslike out there today, which is just her style," said Mulflur. "She just needs to continue to get reps at this level but to come back from an 81 in the same conditions is impressive. She had great poise and made some very good decisions which you don't typically see from a freshman. She'll continue to get better the more reps she gets."

Sophomore Sarah Rhee was the fourth scorer for the Huskies as she is tied for 39^th after climbing 11 spots on the leaderboard after Tuesday's 2-over 74. She sits at 13-over 157 (83-74) following a round that featured three birdies over her final six holes. Also tied with her is freshman Ellen Takada who is also at 13-over 157 (75-82).

No. 3 UCLA leads with a 1-under 575 (290-285) while No. 21 Colorado sits in second at 6-over 582 (296-286) and No. 2 Stanford is third at 18-over 594 (296-298).

Washington wraps up the Pac-12 Championships on Wednesday as it tees off with Arizona State at 8 a.m. on hole one. The final day of the conference championship will be aired on Pac-12 Networks in a tape delayed, one-hour special debuting on Tuesday, May 2 at 4:30 p.m. PT/5:30 p.m. MT across all 7 networks.