Ports leading Montana at Cowgirl Classic

Raina Ports shot rounds of 79 and 72 on Wednesday and was Montana's low scorer as the Wyoming Cowgirl Classic opened at Ak-Chin Southern Dunes Golf Club in Maricopa, Ariz.

Ports is tied for 51st at 7-over through 36 holes on a day the desert course was at its most welcoming. Ten players are under par and the 21 teams in the field carded 21 scores better than 300.

"Best weather we've had out here," said coach Jimmy Mee. "The wind didn't blow. It was a perfect day for playing golf." The Grizzlies shot rounds of 307 and 306, which has them in 18th place.

"Putters weren't hot and we didn't get up and down when we needed to get up and down. Pretty sporadic, not a lot of consistency."

Hannah Ports had Montana's best score in the morning round, carding a pair of birdies to come in at 1-over 73. Kendall Hayward shot a 77, Elle Higgins a 78.

After one birdie in her opening round, Raina Ports had three through her first nine holes in the afternoon round, getting to 2-under on two occasions before closing with a 72.

"It was cool to see Raina bounce back," said Mee. "She played really well this afternoon. Other than Raina's second round, nobody ever got rolling.

"We were missing in the wrong spots and that compounded some mistakes. In Sedona (two weeks ago) we played better, a little more consistently."

Hayward (77-76) is tied for 63rd. She had nothing worse than bogey through 36 holes and two birdies.

"Kendall played pretty solid. She didn't make a lot of birdies but she was steady," said Mee. "But when you're not making birdies, it's hard to shoot low scores."

Hannah Ports (73-82) is tied for 74th, Higgins (78-80) is tied for 97th, Tricia Joyce (82-78) is tied for 103rd. Competing as an individual, Kate Bogenschutz (78-86) is in 112th place out of 118 golfers.

"It seemed like once we got a little bit off the tracks, people got razzled and it was hard to get calmed down," said Mee. "It was a little disappointing from that sense but we've got another day tomorrow."

New Mexico State's Emma Bunch (70-66) and Boise State's Leia Chung (66-70) are tied at 8-under. Sacramento State (280-289) holds the team lead by nine over Long Beach State (287-291).

The tournament will conclude with 18 holes on Thursday.

University of Montana Athletics

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Players Mentioned

Kate Bogenschutz

Kendall Hayward

Elle Higgins

Tricia Joyce

Hannah Ports

Raina Ports

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