Thursday, May 9, 1996
By Rob Kariakin
Daily Bruin Contributor
If there is any truth to the old adage about a chain only being
as strong as its weakest link, then the UCLA women’s golf team has
little to worry about heading into this year’s NCAA Regionals
beginning today at the Champions Golf Course in Lincoln, Neb.
The top-ranked Bruins head into the tournament counting less on
any one player to carry them than on the overall quality of the
team.
The team’s fifth starter, and therefore its supposed weakest
link, junior Eunice Choi, set a course record at the Pacific-10
Conference Championships, shooting a five-under-par 67 on the
second day of the tournament. Some weak link.
Next on the depth chart is sophomore transfer Amandine Vincent,
an All-American and All-Southeastern Conference player while a
freshman at Mississippi State. The two-time French International
Champion also won both the 1994 French and British Junior
Championships.
Third is junior Jeong Min Park. An all-conference honorable
mention a year ago, Park was almost this year’s Pac-10 champion
after shooting 71,70, and 70 over three days. Her final score of
211 was one behind that of Arizona’s Maria Baena, the individual
champion.
Then there are senior captains Jenny Park and Kathy Choi, the Ed
and Tyus of this year’s team. In addition to providing veteran
leadership, they have battled all year for the team’s top
ranking.
All five rank among the top 30 nationally.
"I would say the team is the best team I’ve ever had here at
UCLA," head coach Jackie Steinmann said.
That is high praise coming from the coach who, in her 19 years
at UCLA, led the Bruins to a national championship as well as a
second place finish .
This year’s team has finished first or second in every
tournament but one, coming in fourth at the Ping/Arizona State
Tournament. However, even more frightening for opponents than this
consistent excellence might be the thought that the Bruins are
actually improving with time.
"We played the best we ever played the whole year (at the
Pac-10s)," said Steinmann. The Bruins finished second, but had the
lowest round of the tournament, shooting 286 on the last day.
Standing in the Bruins’ way this week will be some familiar
competition.
It was defending national champion Arizona State who beat the
Bruins by one shot for the Pac-10 title behind the efforts of
11th-ranked Kelly Booth. The third ranked Sun Devils will start
this tournament in a different pairing than the Bruins, but figure
to join them in the following days when the groupings are
determined by the leader board.
Beginning the tournament in UCLA’s group will be second ranked
San Jose State. Led by Vibeke Stensrud, the Spartans have battled
UCLA all year for the top spot in the national polls, actually
taking it from the Bruins for several weeks during the middle of
the season.
The other 17 teams include all of the Pac-10 schools except Cal
and Washington State. Among them, No. 4 Stanford figures to round
out the top finishers at tournament’s end.
The pressure is off the Bruins, as they need only to finish
among the top 10 teams in order to join the seven schools from the
Eastern Regional for the NCAA Championships in Palm Springs, May
22-25. Last year, the team finished seventh at the regionals and
seventh again at the NCAA Championships.
But would anything less than first satisfy this year’s team?
"That’s our goal," Steinmann said, "the team’s goal and my goal
and everybody else’s. I mean, we’re all on the same page."