The defending state champion Irvine Valley women's golf team got off to a solid start in its first event of the year. The Lasers finished fourth in the season-opening, two-day South Coast Classic on Monday at Buenaventura in Ventura. Palomar was the champion, posting an impressive score of 607. Glendale was second at 620 with College of the Canyons third at 637. Irvine Valley came in fourth, just three shots back of Canyons at 640. IVC improved from a fifth-place standing after day one to take fourth overall. Irvine Valley passed Santa Barbara after the first day and pulled away from Orange Empire Conference rival Saddleback. Saddleback trailed Irvine Valley by two strokes following day one. Freshman standout Sally Kim paced IVC with scores of 76 and 78 to post IVC's best overall score of 154. Sophomore Chelsea Kasprowicz celebrated her first career eagle, holing out a fairway shot, to improve her first day score of 83 with a score of 78 on the second day. Kasprowicz finished at 162. Freshman Halle Young (80 and 82) also posted a score of 162 for the Lasers. Sophomore Foya Lazare (83 and 80) came in at 163, followed by sophomore Taylor Moore (83 and 88) at 171 and sophomore Ashley Penner (88 and 84) at 172. "Our scores and tournament standing is very similar to last season's result in this tournament," Irvine Valley Coach Ben Burnett said. "Based on this tournament, Palomar is the favorite this year with College of the Canyons, Irvine Valley and Bakersfield in contention. We will get an even better idea of where everyone is at after the Desert Invitational." Irvine Valley plays in the Desert Invitational Sept. 8-10 at Indian Canyons in Palm Springs.

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