Griz close out play at Battle at the Rock

The Montana women's golf team, which opened with a 322 on Monday, closed the Battle at the Rock on Tuesday with rounds of 316 and 312 as the Grizzlies finished 15th out of 16 teams at the Oak Quarry Golf Club in Riverside, Calif.

Freshman Kylie Esh closed with a 76 to go with her 77 on Monday, and senior Baylee Barckley posted scores of 76 and 78 on Tuesday to finish as Montana's top two placers.

"I feel like everyone hit the ball a little better today. We still didn't putt too well, but we had better chances to score, so it was a little less frustrating," said coach Kris Nord.

Four of Montana's five players had at least one round in the 70s at the season-opening tournament. Freshman Brooklyn Van Bebber carded a 78 in Tuesday's opening round, which actually began on Monday, and freshman Allison Sobol came in at 78 for the final round.

"Everybody had some good rounds of golf, so I was happy," said Nord. "We just need to play. We'll be operating behind the eight ball for another month since we can't do what we really need to work on.

"We can still work on some swing things, but the real key is our short game. I'm not too concerned about this crew."

Barckley opened with an 81 on Monday. She cut her scores down to 76 and 78 on Tuesday. She had two birdies in her final two rounds and played only one hole at anything worse than bogey, carding a double on the par-4 6th in her third round.

"Baylee hit the ball real well, but she literally made no putts today," said Nord. "She hit it much better than yesterday, but she was lipping out a lot of birdie putts and par saves."

Grand Canyon (302-291-288), in ninth place after the opening round, rallied on Tuesday to win the tournament by a stroke over Cal Poly (291-295-296) and two over Santa Clara (294-296-293).

Hawaii (303-294-289) and Gonzaga (301-295-290) were just five strokes back.

USC's Alyaa Abdulghany (70-74-68) and Cal Poly's Elizabeth Scholtes (68-72-72) both finished atop the leaderboard at 4-under.

Montana won't compete again until March 14-15 at the Lady Thunderbird Invitational at the Sunbrook Golf Club in St. George, Utah.

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Players Mentioned

Baylee Barckley

Kylie Esh

Allison Sobol

Brooklyn Van Bebber

University of Montana Athletics