Women's Golf | 2/19/2025 9:00:00 AM

Utah Tech heads back to the "Grand Canyon State" this weekend to play at the Western Michigan-hosted Rio Verde Collegiate Invitational. The three-day, 54-hole event will be played this Friday-through-Sunday at the par-72, 6,001-yard Rio Verde Country Club. 

The 20-team tournament field will include the Trailblazers and the host Broncos, along with fellow WAC member and California Baptist. In addition, Akron, Ball State, Bowling Green, Bradley, Butler, CSUN, Central Michigan, Creighton, Illinois State, Kennesaw State, Loyola-Chicago, Missouri State, Oakland, Ohio, South Dakota, Wichita State, and Xavier.
 
The five player lineup for the Trailblazers will feature juniors Jenna Anderson and Jane Olson, sophomores Mia Cesarek and Samantha Phelan, and freshman Maria Purroy Galan.

HEAD COACH LINDSEY ORTH: Lindsey Orth (Utah Tech, 2007) is in her ninth season as head coach of the Trailblazer women's golf program. 
        Last season, Coach Orth led the Trailblazers to eight top-10 showings in 10 team events, highlighted by a fifth-place finish as hosts of its Utah Tech Trailblazer Invitational, and a seventh-place showing at the 2024 Western Athletic Conference Championships.
        In addition, all seven of her players went on to earn 2023-24 Academic All-WAC, and WGCA Academic All-America Scholars honors, while three others were named to the College Sports Communicators Academic All-District team.  
        During her tenure as Utah Tech head coach, Orth has guided the Blazers to a runner-up Rocky Mountain Athletic Conference team finish in 2019, and to consecutive fifth-place finishes at the Pacific West Conference Championships in 2017 and 2018. 
        Prior to her arrival at Utah Tech, she served as assistant golf professional at the Sand Hollow Golf Resort, and as an LPGA assistant teaching professional for the City of St. George. Orth also spent two seasons on the coaching staff of the Hurricane High School girl's golf program, including a one-year stint as the Tigers' head coach in the 2010-11 season. 
        Coach Orth, who is an apprentice member of the LPGA T&CP, played collegiately at the University of Central Arkansas, where she helped lead the Bears to six-consecutive team tournament wins and a Gulf South Conference championship.
 
ANDERSON EARN WAC WEEKLY HONOR: Anderson was named Western Athletic Conference Women's Golf Player of the Week on Feb. 6, after she helped lead the Trailblazers to a runner-up finish at the 2025 spring-season opening Utah Valley Wigwam Preview.
        Anderson put together the best overall tournament of her collegiate career as she took home runner-up honors. 
        The junior was one of only two golfers in the field to post a red number on day one as she rolled in three birdies and 14 pars en route to a 1-under 71 to stand tied for first place. She then followed that up with another 71 on her second loop, including birdieing four of her final six holes, and held the clubhouse lead by three shots heading into the Preview's final round.
        The junior (71-71-76-218; +2) penciled in four more birdies in round three, but a triple-bogey on 17 was her undoing as she had to settle for runner-up honors.
        Anderson's plus-2 218 was her 54-hole collegiate career low score, and was the third-lowest individual score posted by a Trailblazer this season. 
        In addition, Anderson's runner-up result was Utah Tech's second second-place individual finish, and the 10^th-individual top-five in the program's D-I era overall.

TRAILBLAZERS AT A GLANCE: Through five events this season, Phelan leads the team with a 74.21 stroke average through 14 rounds with a team high five par or better rounds, while Cesarek is second 75.57 with two par or better rounds. 
        Purroy Galan is third in stroke average at 76.14 through her first 14 collegiate rounds with three par or better rounds, followed by Anderson in fourth at 76.79 with three par or better rounds, and Olson in fifth at 78.21 after five tourneys.

UP NEXT: Utah Tech will stay close to home as the Trailblazers will tee it up at the Southern Utah/Pizza Hut Lady Thunderbird Invite, which will be played at Sunbrook Golf Course in St. George on March 7-9.