May 8, 2008

LUBBOCK, Texas - Playing in its first NCAA regional in three years, No. 46 Texas Tech women's golf team finds itself in striking distance of the top 10. The Lady Raiders fired a 19-over 307 to land seven strokes out of the 10th position in a tie for 16th after Thursday's first round of the NCAA Central Regional at the Texas Golf and Country Club in Austin.

Amidst a tough field littered with 17 top 50 teams, including nine squads ranked in the Top 25, Tech played fairly consistent throughout the day, struggling on a couple holes here and there to fall back at the end of the round. Junior Ulrika Van Niekerk got off to a solid start, shooting even par through the first five holes. She played consistently most of the way through the back nine until running into some struggles on the final three holes to come in at four-over 76 for the day.

Gloriana Soto birdied the third hole to help keep her at one over after the front nine. A couple struggles on 10 and 11 set her back a couple strokes before a birdie on 14 helped her tie Van Niekerk with an identical 76. Freshman Robyn Scott picked up key birdies on nine and 18 while playing a solid first nine to match her teammates at 76 as well. The trio paces Tech in a tie for 47th. Junior Megan Dowdy had some opening-round struggles while coming in at 79 to tie for 73rd. Freshman Alex Gibson landed an 86 to round off the Lady Raiders for the day.

No. 3 UCLA leads the field at five-under 283, while TCU is two shots back in second at 285. Purdue is in third, followed by Denver and Nebraska to round out the top five. Texas A&M is in sixth, with Florida State, Texas, LSU and North Carolina following in a tight pack. Tech is tied with East Tennesse State in 16th, while Washington, Illinois State, Harvard and Fairleigh Dickinson finish off the team standings.

Friday's second round is set to get under way at 8:10 a.m. CST, with the first Lady Raiders teeing off at 12:30 p.m. Live scoring and results can be found at www.golfstat.com.