No. 9 Women's Golf to Open at ANNIKA Intercollegiate

The UCLA women's golf team, ranked No. 9 in the Golfweek preseason top-30 poll, will open the 2021-22 season next week at Royal Golf Club in Lake Elmo, Minn., competing in the ANNIKA Intercollegiate presented by 3M.
 
The 54-hole stroke play event begins on Monday, Sept. 13, runs through Wednesday, Sept. 15, and includes 12 of the nation's top women's golf programs.
 
The starting five for UCLA will include senior Simar Singh, junior Emma Spitz, sophomore Ty Akabane and freshmen Zoe Antoinette Campos and Caroline Canales. UCLA's round one start time on Monday is set for 8:05 a.m. (CT) off the 10th tee in the order of Akabane, Spitz, Canales, Singh and Campos.

ANNIKA Intercollegiate results will be available online at Golfstat.com.
 
Joining the Bruins in the 12-team field are No. 2 Wake Forest, No. 3 Ole Miss, No. 4 Duke, No. 10 Arizona, No. 12 South Carolina, No. 13 USC, No. 18 Arizona State, No. 21 Texas, No. 26 Alabama, LSU and Minnesota. The 2021-22 campaign will mark head coach Carrie Forsyth's 23rd season as the Bruins' head coach.
 
UCLA has played in all six of the previous ANNIKA Intercollegiates, finishing ninth in 2014, sixth in 2015, third in 2016, second in both 2017 and 2018, and 10th in 2019. The event was canceled in 2020 due to the COVID-19 pandemic. This will mark the third consecutive ANNIKA Intercollegiate to take place at Royal Golf Club.
 
Spitz enters her junior season having been named a first-team preseason All-America selection by Golfweek earlier this month. She secured WGCA first-team All-America honors for the second consecutive season in 2021 and was one of 10 finalists for the ANNIKA Award. She earned first-team All-Pac-12 honors last season and finished the year with a runner-up showing at the NCAA Championship. Spitz won the NCAA Louisville Regional title and had six other top-5 finishes.
 
Singh enters her senior campaign having competed in eight tournaments for the Bruins in 2021. Last season, she registered a top-12 finish at The Match in the Desert (+8, 152, on Jan. 24-25). She tallied a scoring average of 78.0 during her junior season.
 
Akabane last competed for the Bruins during the 2019-20 season. As a freshman that year, she appeared in four tournaments in the fall season and recorded a 73.7 scoring average. She had a pair of top-20 finishes, four under-par rounds and two rounds in the 60s. In the summer of 2020, she reached the round of 16 at the U.S. Women's Amateur.
 
Campos, a freshman from Valencia, Calif., tied for fifth place in July 2021 at the Girls Junior PGA Championship in Kentucky (-5, 287). She registered a top-nine finish in July 2021 at the California Women's Amateur Championship in La Habra Heights, Calif. In Oct. 2020, she had been named to the Rolex Junior All-America First Team.
 
Canales, a freshman from Calabasas, Calif., had a top-nine finish in July 2021 at the California Women's Amateur Championship in La Habra Heights, Calif. She reached the quarterfinals of match play at the California Women's Amateur Championship in July 2020 and tied for fourth (-6, 210) at the SCGA Women's Amateur Championship in Aug. 2020.
 
Golfweek Preseason Top 30
1. Stanford
2. Wake Forest
3. Ole Miss
4. Duke
5. Florida State
6. LSU
7. Oklahoma State
8. Auburn
9. UCLA
10. Arizona
11. Baylor
12. South Carolina
13. USC
14. Virginia
15. Kentucky
16. Oregon
17. Florida
18. Arizona State
19. Michigan
20. Georgia
21. Texas
22. Virginia Tech
23. Tennessee
24. Arkansas
25. Mississippi State
26. Alabama
27. Houston
28. Vanderbilt
29. Michigan State
30. San Jose State