LAS VEGAS – BYU’s Allysha Mae Mateo is in a tie for first after carding a 3-under-par 69 in the opening round of play at the Rebel Beach Intercollegiate. 

Mateo birdied three of her final five holes to close out the morning round at 69, the second-best score of her BYU career. Mateo is tied for the lead with Harriet Lynch of Fresno State and Lorena Tseng of Tulsa.

As a team, BYU scored an first-round total of 295, placing the Cougars in a four-way tie for third with New Mexico, Grand Canyon, and Tulsa. Fresno State led the field with an opening-round score of 287, followed by the Cougars conference rival Gonzaga in second at 292.

BYU’s scoring on Monday consisted of Kerstin Fotu and Cynthia Tu with 75s, Naomi Soifua’s 76 and Lila Galeai’s 79. Fotu and Tu’s scores of 75 a piece were good for a top-30 finish amid golfers from diverse conferences such as the Big Ten, WCC, Mountain West and the American Athletic. 

BYU’s Annick Haczkiewicz competed as an individual and finished the first round with a 75 as well. 

“Today we took a small step forward,” said head coach Carrie Roberts. “We’re hoping for a solid third round tomorrow.” 

Round two of the 54-hole tournament was in-progress when play was suspended on Monday evening, due to darkness at Spanish Trail Country Club in Las Vegas. The second and third rounds will be completed on Tuesday, beginning with a shotgun start at 8 a.m. PST. Keep up to date with the Cougars’ final day at Rebel Beach through live stats from Golfstat. 

LAS VEGAS — BYU women’s golf returns to action at the Rebel Beach Invitational on Feb. 15-16, at Spanish Trail Country Club.

The Cougars will play two rounds on Monday, followed by the final round on Tuesday. Both days begin at 8:30 a.m. PST with a shotgun start. Live stats are available at Golfstat.com. 

BYU will face a challenging field of 13 opponents, including host UNLV, WCC-foe Gonzaga, as well as SMU, Tulsa and UTSA, who finished ahead of BYU at the Trinity Forest Invitational on Feb. 1-2. 

Tulsa, who is coming off a win at the Texas State Invitational on Feb. 8-9, is also in the field at the Rebel Beach Invitational. The Golden Hurricane are led by Lorena Tseng, the reigning American Athletic Conference women’s golfer of the week.

Teeing off for the Cougars in Las Vegas will be Allysha Mae Mateo, Lila Galeai, Naomi Soifua, Kerstin Fotu and Cynthia Tu. Annick Haczkiewicz, a junior from Las Vegas, will also compete individually.

Despite finishing 11th at Trinity Forest, the Cougars posted some impressive individual performances. Mateo tied for third with a score of 219, her fourth top-3 finish of her BYU career. Galeai, a freshman seeing her first collegiate action for the Cougars, finished 30th with the team’s second-best score at 229.

“At the Trinity Forest Invitational we learned that we need to adjust to fast greens and stay focused,” said head coach Carrie Roberts. “We’re looking to build off last week.”