April 25, 2006
TUCSON, Ariz. - The No. 3 Arizona State women's golf team slipped into second place after shooting an 11-over 299 in the second round of the 2006 Pacific-10 Conference Championships, being held at the par 72, 6,495-yard Oro Valley Country Club.
The Sun Devils (586 through two rounds) will enter Wednesday's third and final round trailing the No. 2 UCLA Bruins (578) by eight strokes. The Bruins, who began the day trailing ASU by four strokes for first place, shot a one-under 287 on Tuesday to claim the lead. No. 12 California is in third place (594), followed by No. 6 USC (595), Oregon State (605), Washington (608), No. 19 Arizona (609), No. 21 Stanford (610), Washington State (615) and Oregon (633).
"Our team as a whole really struggled," said ASU head coach Melissa Luellen. "Jennifer (Osborn) and Tiffany (Tavee) had two of their highest rounds all year. Alissa (Kuczka) and Azahara (Munoz) played solid. Azahara was a little up and down. We got nothing going as a team. The team is so close that if it goes bad for one person it goes that way for all of them."
After having two players shoot under par in Monday's first round, all five Sun Devils competing on Tuesday shot over par. Currently leading ASU is freshman Azahara Munoz, who is in a three-way tie for third place after shooting a one-over 73 on Tuesday (143 through two rounds). Munoz is one stroke behind Washington's Paige Mackenzie for second place (142) and two strokes behind UCLA's Amie Cochran for first place (141).
Matching Munoz' one-over 73 on Tuesday was senior Alissa Kuczka, who is in sole possession of sixth place (144) heading into the final round. Junior Tiffany Tavee is tied for 16th place (150) after shooting a five-over 77 while freshman Jennifer Osborn is tied for 22nd place (152) after carding a seven-over 79 on Tuesday. After shooting a 79 in Monday's first round, junior Charmaine Erasmus rebounded to shoot a four-over 76 on Tuesday. Erasmus is currently tied for 30th place (155).
The Pac-10 Championships continue with Wednesday's final round. Tee times will begin at 8 a.m. on Wednesday. ASU will start off the first tee at 9:20 a.m. and will play with UCLA.
Live scoring is available at www.golfstatresults.com, while a recap of each round's results will be posted at www.thesundevils.com.