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Feb. 26, 2007

Tucson, AZ – The eighth-ranked Virginia women’s golf team is in an unfamiliar place after the first two rounds of play at the Arizona Invitational. The Cavaliers are in last place in the 15-team field after 36 holes of play. Darkness prevented four teams from completing their second round, but Arizona State held a commanding lead at 9-over 577 on the rest of the field.

Virginia shot 26-over 314 in the morning and posted a 316 during the afternoon round for a first day total of 630. Sophomore Jennie Arseneault turned in UVa’s two best rounds. She opened with a 2-over 74 in the morning and posted a 78 in the afternoon for a 36-hole total of 150. She was 23rd overall when play was stopped. Senior Leah Wigger shot rounds of 80 and 76 and was 51st at 156. Kristen Simpson shot back-to-back 81s and was 64th at 162 while Rachel Smith was 67th after carding rounds of 81 and 82. Freshman Whitney Neuhauser was 72nd with scores of 80 and 85.

“It was a tough day out there, but we’ll go out tomorrow and see if we can climb the ladder a little bit,” said UVa coach Jan Mann. “We certainly have our work cut out for us. I’m not going to make any excuses, because these girls should be able to handle any condition, but playing in the desert is a new experience for us and you could tell today. Still, they competed hard and they kept grinding and never gave up.

“I think being in last place is something everyone should experience once,” Mann said. “It makes you never want to be there again. We’ll learn from this and get better.”

Duke’s Amanda Blumenherst was atop the leaderboard at 3-under 139. The Blue Devils trailed Arizona State by 11 shots with a two-round total of 588.

The tournament’s second round will resume Tuesday morning at Arizona National Golf Club and then be followed by the final 18 holes of play. Live scoring of the tournament is available at golfstat.com.

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