Irvine Valley's women's golf team finished with a score of 355 on the opening day of the Orange Empire Conference Championship at Sun Lakes in Banning on Monday.
The score placed IVC fifth in the standings after the first day of the two-day event.
The nine conference teams will play the final round of the tournament on Wednesday at Sun Lakes.
IVC was a close fifth, just three strokes behind Mt. San Jacinto.
College of the Desert led the field with a four-player score of 341. Mt. SAC was second at 344, Palomar sat third at 346 and Mt. San Jacinto was fourth at 352.
IVC, which was at 355, had a 21-stroke lead over sixth-place Saddleback (376).
Individually, Desert's Fumika Matsumoto led the field with a 4-over 76 while Irvine Valley sophomore Hyerin Kim (79) was just three strokes back for the tournament.
Irvine Valley sophomore Rebecca Peng was tied for seventh-place at 84. Sophomore Stuti Mandal shot 95, freshman Lara Kyaw came in at 97, freshman Alexis McLachlan carded 100 and sophomore Liliana Gutierrez was at 102 on Monday.
Irvine Valley went into the conference finals in third place in the conference standings.