Griz in fourth place through 36 holes

The Montana women's golf team, playing its final tournament of the fall season, is in fourth place out of nine teams after 36 holes of the Big O Classic at Oak Hills Country Club in Omaha, Neb.

The Grizzlies shot rounds of 310 and 316 on Monday on a course that only allowed four of 18 rounds by the nine teams to be sub-310.

"The greens are tough. It's not long, so I'm kind of trying to figure out why," said coach Kris Nord. "I feel like it's gettable, but it's tougher than it looks. You've got to be in the right spot in the fairway."

Creighton (307-303) holds the 36-hole lead by three over Wichita State (302-311), nine over host Omaha (308-311). The Grizzlies are seven strokes behind the Mavericks.

Montana, which had travel issues and didn't get into Omaha until late Sunday night instead of Saturday, missed the day-before practice round. Monday was the Grizzlies' first look at the course.

"I thought we handled it well," said Nord. "The kids were tired by the end. I was pleased with us hanging in there. The last nine holes were tough, just energy-wise."

Raina Ports (76-79) and Tricia Joyce (77-78) lead Montana and are tied for 14th overall. Kylie Franklin (79-78) is tied for 18th.

Ports double-bogeyed her opening hole of the day, then bogeyed her third. From there she played the opening round at even par, posting three birdies.

"Raina is really good about keeping her cool," said Nord. "She had a rough start and played like it didn't happen. She just kept grinding. In golf maturity, she's older than a freshman in my mind."

Joyce played just one of 36 holes on Monday worse than bogey. "Tricia is always competing," said Nord. "Her putter is on and off, and it was on for a little while. That helped. She made some long putts."

Montana led the field with 104 pars but managed just nine birdies, the second-lowest total in the field, two more than Cal State Northridge, which shot rounds of 333 and 331.

Four of the Grizzlies' birdies came from Ports, three from Joyce.

"The area we can improve most is our wedges from 100 yards in. We're just not putting it in a good spot to get a birdie chance," said Nord. "We're putting it where it's really tough to two-putt."

Jessica Ponce (83-81) is tied for 33rd, Madison Cecil (78-89) is tied for 39th.

Creighton's Eleanor Hudepohl is the 36-hole leader at 2-under after shooting rounds of 70 and 74 on the par-73 course. Her teammate Gabby Tremblay (73-75) is in second, four strokes back.

The tournament will conclude with 18 holes on Tuesday.

University of Montana Athletics

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Madison Cecil

Kylie Franklin

Tricia Joyce

Jessica Ponce

Raina Ports

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