The Irvine Valley women's golf team finished fifth among the 12 teams at the two-day South Coast Invitational tournament in Ventura that wrapped up on Monday.
Irvine Valley finished with a team score of 738. The Lasers were just one shot out of fourth place.
Santa Barbara won the event with a two-day score of 616. Sierra was second at 624, Reedley came in third at 669 and Mt. SAC was fourth at 737.
The first day on Sunday was played in cold windy conditions at the Olivas Links Golf Course. And the second day was played in pleasant weather conditions at the Buena Ventura Golf Course.
IVC was paced by sophomore transfer Marisa Bhanubandh and freshman Araceli Esquivel. Each came in with two-day totals of 164.
Bhanubandh scored 86 at Olivas Links and had a round of 78 at Buena Ventura, while Esquivel scored 88 at Olivas Links and came in at 76 at Buena Ventura.
Coach Ben Burnett said that both Bhanubandh and Esquivel showed the potential to make deep runs in the postseason in November.
Burnett said that their impressive second-day scores of 78 and 76, respectively, each included a shot hit out of bounds.
The Irvine Valley team also improved its score by 34 strokes from the first to the second day. Every player on the team improved their score significantly over the first day scores.
Freshman Akie Sannomiya finished at 198, sophomore Alexis McLachlan carded 212 and freshman Esther Kim ended up at 275.
The team plays again this Friday and Saturday at the Desert Classic at Bermuda Dunes in Palm Desert.
"The women's golf season starts so quickly with two road trips in the second week of school," Burnett said. "We are using the tournaments somewhat like baseball spring training games.
"Our goal is team bonding and identification of strengths and weaknesses of our team as well as that of the other teams who compete in these two invitational tournaments. I look forward to continuing to develop and showcase our team this weekend."
