Esh cards a 71, sits one stroke off the lead

Note: Friday's second and final round of the Lady Thunderbird Invitational was canceled

On a week without sporting precedent, with more games, tournaments, championships and seasons being suspended or canceled with each passing hour, Montana sophomore Kylie Esh compartmentalized the news as best she could.

Then she went out and shot a 71 on Thursday as the Lady Thunderbird Invitational opened at Sunbrook Golf Club in St. George, Utah.

"We tried to make it as normal as possible and do our normal routine, but we were freaking out in the hotel last night. It was crazy how everything spiraled so quickly," said Esh, who is one stroke off the lead of Eastern Washington's Madalyn Ardueser.

"I think it was actually a distraction. You weren't just thinking about how you were playing and your game the whole time. It put things in perspective if you had a bad hole."

Montana shot a team score of 309 on Thursday, leaving the Grizzlies, who are opening their spring schedule in St. George, sitting eighth out of 10 teams in a tournament that started the week with 12.

Cal Baptist began the morning at the course and went through its warmups before getting called back to campus by its administration.

"They were there this morning and warmed up, then they just opted out," said Esh. "That was weird."

Nebraska-Omaha also withdrew from the tournament.

Southern Utah shot a first-day round of 296, carding individual scores of 73, 74, 74 and 75, and will take a one-stroke lead over South Dakota State into Friday's second and final round.

Eastern Washington shot a 301 and is five strokes back.

Faith D'Ortenzio and Tricia Joyce both shot 79. Allison Sobol shot an 80 to round out Montana's scorers. Jessica Ponce shot a 79 as well, but she is competing as an individual.

Esh began her round at No. 8 after a morning practice session at the range that suggested her score might be closer to 81 than 71.

"I was hitting it really bad on the range, so I wasn't expecting anything today," she said. "But I made adjustments with my alignment through the round and things got better as the day went along."

She hit a lengthy putt on No. 8 to save par, then made another long putt on No. 9 to save bogey. Then she started rolling.

"Everything just started to click. I putted a lot better than I normally do, and I was hitting it super well too, so I gave myself a lot of shorter-to-mid-range birdie opportunities," she said.

"It was really easy to stay level today. With everything else that is going on, I wasn't able to overthink golf."

Esh is tied with Weber State's Kirsten Convoy for second. Five other players are within three strokes of the lead.

"I'm not super comfortable being in that position," she admitted. "In high school tournaments and at state, I've been one shot off or leading but never in a college tournament.

"I'm just going to try to not think about it a whole lot tonight. There is not too much more that I can do but play the same game tomorrow that I played today."

University of Montana Athletics

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Faith D'Ortenzio

Kylie Esh

Tricia Joyce

Jessica Ponce

Allison Sobol

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