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l ed by junior lilia vu, the UCLA Bru- ins' women's golf team won three consecutive team events to close the fall season and regain their ranking as the nation's No. 1 team in the latest Golfweek/Sagarin Women's Collegiate Golf Ratings. Vu, a former Fountain Valley High star, was named Pac-12 Conference Golfer of the Month for November after coming from behind to win medalist honors in the inaugural Battle of the Beach in San Jose del Cabo, Mexico. Vu shot 8-under par in the 54-hole event at Club Campestre San Jose to record the fifth tournament victory of her college career and lead the Bruins past second-place Oklahoma to another team title. She finished second in the previous event after it was reduced to 36 holes. After beginning the fall season with a second-place finish at the Annika Inter- collegiate in Minnesota, UCLA won back-to-back events – the Stanford In- tercollegiate at Poppy Hills Golf Club in Pebble Beach and then the Nanea Pac- 12 Preview in Koala, Hawaii – before making it three in a row in Mexico to move to the top of the national rank- ings. In mid-December, Vu was ranked No. 3 in the Golfweek/Sagarin individual na- tional rankings and finished the fall sea- son with a 69.63 scoring average, sixth nationally. Other SoCal golfers on UCLA's top-ranked team are senior erin choi (Torrance West High), senior lydia choi (Beverly Hills High), senior joo seu (Aliso Niguel High, Laguna Niguel) and junior beth wu (Diamond Bar High). carrie forsyth's Bruins have now won 12 tournaments over the past three seasons and 65 events during her 19- year tenure as UCLA coach. After a break for the holidays, the Bru- ins resume their tournament schedule at the Northrop Grumman Regional Challenge at Palos Verdes Golf Club in Palos Verdes Estates (Feb. 11-13). ••••• angel yin wins: Southern Califor- nia native angel yin (Monterey Park, Ar- cadia High) closed out her unforgettable 2017 season in December by winning the Omega Dubai Ladies Classic, an official Ladies European Tour event in the United Arab Emirates, for her first tour victory as a professional. Yin, 19, birdied the second hole of a three-way playoff to beat In-Kyung Kim, the reigning Women's British Open champion, and Celine Herbin of France. "I feel amazing," Yin told the media af- terward. "This is a major tour, (so) I can say (it's) my first professional win. This is big for me." In her first full season on the LPGA News and notes from around the Southern California golf scene continued on the next screen >> vu helps bruins rise bacK to the top of college ranKings SMALL BUCKET BY RANDY YOUNGMAN