Women's Golf 15th In NGCA Match Play Qualifying

Sunday, September 6

Daytona Beach, Fla.

All Day

Colorado

Round One

Photo by: CUBuffs.com

September 06, 2009 | Women's Golf

By: Allie Musso, Assistant SID

DAYTONA BEACH - The University of Colorado women's golf team opened the 2009-10 season here Sunday at the NGCA Match Play Championship with a 15th place finish in the qualifying round.

"This is a very top-quality field that we're playing in and the course is long and difficult," said head coach Anne Kelly. "Overall we made what I call unforced errors that you can't make period, but even more so against this type of competition. We did improve in the second round and our front nine scores were much better. A number of our players made good comebacks after rough starts and I was proud of that. They kept fighting."

In the team standings, Florida finished first with a two-round total of 285 with South Carolina (586), Auburn (590), LSU (590), Georgia (592), Alabama (600), Virginia (601), UT Chattanooga (602), Kent State (603) and Duke (606) rounding out the top 10.

Colorado posted a 315 in the opening round and shaved off six strokes in round two after carding a 309 team score, good for 624 overall.

Senior Christine Kim led the Buffs with a two-round score of 150, good for a 23rd place finish individually in stroke play. Kim rallied from 5-over par in the morning with a 1-over 73 in the afternoon. Kim recorded five birdies on the day and an eagle on hole No. 2. Kim struggled on the back nine both rounds, but managed to play the front nine at 3-under in the second round and 2-under in the first.

"I thought I play pretty well," said Kim. "I was struggling before we left and my putting really saved me in the first round. In the second round I got more comfortable and I hit the ball a lot better. I didn't really think about the competition today, I just made sure that I played my own game."

Sophomore Emily Talley followed right behind Kim and can lay claim to CU's low round on the day, with an even-par 72 in the morning round. Talley came out of the gate playing 10 holes to par, with four birdies and just four bogeys in round one. After the first round, Talley was tied for third in the individual standings, but due to a rough second round, she slipped back to 29th place.

Senior Dominique Pytlewski finished the day tied for 69th place individually with a two-round score of 161. Pytlewski, like the rest of the Buffaloes, found herself battling on the back nine of the course, but played solid on the front nine in both rounds.

"The back nine, which was our front nine, gave Domi (Pytlewski) a lot of problems, but she fought her way back on the second nine and I was very proud of her for that," said Kelly.

Sophomore transfer Meaghan Kari and Stephanie Simich rounded out the scoring for the Buffaloes. Kari (83-82-165) finished tied for 76th and Simich (88-79-167) was 79th after day one.

"Meaghan (Kari), who has played very well leading up to this tournament, had a tough day but it's just going to take time for her to get adjusted to this level of competition," added Kelly.

Colorado will now be seeded No. 15 in match play and will face 10th-seeded Duke in the first round on Monday morning. All teams will play two rounds of match play on Monday. Fans who wish to follow the action live, visit www.golfstat.com.

"If we could eliminate the silly mistakes and the unforced errors, I think we'll be fine," said Kelly. "I'm excited to go into the match play portion. It should be really great experience for our team to get going and get our year started."

BUFFALO INDIVIDUALS

T23 Christine Kim 77-73-150

T29 Emily Talley 72-79-151

T69 Dominique Pytlewski 83-78-161

T76 Meaghan Kari 83-82-165

79 Stephanie Simich 88-79-167

TEAM STANDINGS

1 Florida 293-292-585

2 South Carolina 292-294-586

T3 Auburn 294-296-590

T3 LSU 299-291-590

5 Georgia 295-297-592