The San Jose State women’s golf team is defending its Mountain West Conference championship this week at Mission Hills Country Club in Rancho Mirage, Calif.
The Mountain West Championship tournament began on Tuesday and the Spartans are looking to win their second straight conference championship. The course is 18 holes.
In the first round of play, the Spartans finished in second place behind New Mexico as SJSU went 2-under-par and recorded a total score of 286.
SJSU graduate student Antonia Malate finished the first round tied for first place individually with a score of 68, which was 4-under-par.
On Wednesday, the Spartans finished the day at the top of the leaderboards with a score of 569, which was 7 under par. SJSU held a 4-shot lead after day two of the tournament.
Senior Kajsa Arwefjäll, ended the day with a score of 71 and a total of 141 which was good for fourth place after.
“I started off good,” Arwefjäll said in a post game Twitter video. “I had a lot of birdie opportunities but I didn’t really make them so that's sad. I still made some birdies and a lot of pars, which is good.”
Arwefjäll said team comradery has been key to the Spartans’ success over the past two days.
“The team is great. All of us, we put everything in and try to make as much birdies as possible. We all cheer for each other to make each other play the best we can,” she said.
Malate led the team with a third place finish on day two with a score of 72. She has recorded a total of 140 after both days, which is -4 under par.
With two Spartans leading in the top four, they will have a 4 shot lead going into the final round.
SJSU head coach Dana Dormann said the team did the little things on Wednesday to take the lead.
“I saw some really solid approach shots and some good putts and some birdies,” she said. “We had a couple hiccups around and some double bogeys that we would like to avoid but overall pleased with today’s score.”
Dormann also said if the team sticks to the game plan, they will be successful in the final round.
“We would like to stick to our process, focus on being committed and making sure that we keep on bringing the energy tomorrow,” she said.
The Spartans won the 2022 MW Tournament with a record setting 30 shots over par against New Mexico last year.
The conference tournament win in 2022 was the Spartans’ first conference championship win since joining the conference in 2013.
San Jose has a total of seven top-five finishes this season that led to two wins in USF Intercollegiate and Carlbom at the Landfill Tradition in its 20th anniversary.
The Spartans are scheduled to tee off at 7 a.m. today at Mission Hills Country Club.
