Kapalua, HI—The UC Riverside Women's Golf Team started the final round of the 2016 Big West Championship three shots back of the lead, but rallied to overtake front-running Cal Poly, and claim the first Women's Golf Championship in the Highlanders' 15-year membership in the conference.

In the first three holes of play, the Highlanders found themselves leading thanks to a series bogeys by the Mustangs. They would never trail again, and throughout the day they had leads of as many as seven strokes before ultimately prevailing by four shots. UC Riverside's final round 296 was the best team round of the tournament. (final results)

Paris Griffith finished fourth after three days of steady play that paced the UCR team. "Our game plan was to play smart and avoid mistakes. I feel like I was steady." Griffith had shot par on 36 of the 54 holes played in the championship. "I try to stay in a mentally positive place," she added. "I prefer that I have more pars than birdies and bogeys because its mentally stressful to have a lot of ups and downs throughout the round." She was in the final pairing in the final round of a championship for the first time in her career. "I felt like this is where I should be. It was a confidence builder, and my game is ready for these moments."

Hannah Facchini worked her way into to the top-10, finishing sixth with a final round 73, which was highlighted by a back nine played at -2. "Heading into the back nine, I knew I had to put a little number up," said Facchini. "I knew I had to pick it up for the team."

Jakeishya Le bounced back from two rounds in the 80s to shoot the low round of the tournament, a two under par 70, in the final 18. "In the first two rounds, I wasn't really myself, she explained My teammates believing in me when I wasn't believing in myself helped so much. I really wanted to do it for them. On the tournament low final round 70, she added "the first five holes were the most tricky on the course. Getting through those let me know I had a green light to go birdie hunting."

"We just wanted to be proud of giving it our all today, regardless of the outcome," said Head Women's Golf Coach Mary Ritchie. "We were business-like in our approach today. All of the girls knew that they needed to play as cleanly as possible, and they did."

Along with the tournament Championship, the Highlanders receive an automatic bid to the NCAA Regionals. They will find out their destination on Monday, April 25th.
 

Big West Championship
Pos.		Rd 1	Rd 2	Rd 3	Total
1	UC Riverside	308	310	296	914
4	Paris Griffith	74	76	76	226
T6	Hannah Facchini	79	76	73	228
T16	Haley Wian	76	79	77	232
19	Jakeishya Le	81	83	70	234
T20	Krista Twet	79	79	77	235