Griz wrap up first 36 in Arizona

The Montana women's golf team carded rounds of 333 and 324 on Wednesday as the 54-hole Wyoming Cowgirl Classic opened at the Ak-Chin Southern Dunes Golf Club in Maricopa, Ariz.

The Grizzlies are in 14th place in the 15-team field, ahead of North Idaho, following a tough day fighting the desert winds.

"The conditions were extremely tough. We don't play in a lot of wind like that," said assistant coach Jeff Allen. "It was a tough day for our confidence for sure.

"The greens are pretty firm, so it's hard to get the ball to stop on the down-wind holes, then hitting shots into the wind, you have to control your spin and flight your ball down."

Iowa State (291-297) leads the field by one stroke over UNLV (302-287). Grand Canyon (300-296), Santa Clara (298-300) and Sacramento State (309-291) round out the top five.

Montana did not have any players break 80 during Wednesday's opening round but freshman Bella Johnson (85-76) and Raina Ports (80-78) both shot scores in the 70s over the day's second 18.

Ports is tied for 44th going into Thursday's final round. Johnson is tied for 56th.

Starting her second round on No. 13, Ports got back to even par with back-to-back birdies on the course's front nine, then added another birdie on No. 8.

Johnson's consistent second round had a dozen holes played at par, five at bogey with one birdie.

"We had some good stretches when we were battling and fighting through some tough times," said Allen. "But the constant grind of playing in that kind of wind got to us."

Kylie Franklin (81-82), competing as an individual, is tied for 62nd, Kate Bogenschutz (86-84) is tied for 75th, Hannah Ports (89-86) is in 83rd place in the 90-player field.

Elle Higgins shot an opening-round 82 before having to withdraw during the second 18 because of a lingering injury.

She won't play in Thursday's final 18, which means Montana will not be able to drop its high score from its remaining scoring foursome.

"We'll take some lessons from the conditions today and try to get something positive going tomorrow and build on it so we can end on a high note and take some momentum into our next event," said Allen.

Iowa State's Karisa Chul-Ak-Sorn (73-72), UNLV's Mayumi Umezu (73-72) and Grand Canyon's Anci Dy (71-74) top the individual leaderboard at 1-over. Six other players are within two strokes.

University of Montana Athletics

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Players Mentioned

Kate Bogenschutz

Kylie Franklin

Elle Higgins

Bella Johnson

Hannah Ports

Raina Ports

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