Finishing in 14th Place

PROVO -- The Cougars finished 14th in the NCAA Fall Preview Wednesday afternoon, where an 8-over-par final round finished off the 304-303-300--907 tournament.

It was BYU's first appearance in the prestigious tournament, which includes 18 of the nation's top collegiate women's golf programs. The Cougars entered the tournament coming off of the program's second best finish, claiming 17th in the NCAA Championship last season.

"We had a pretty good showing for our first time invited to the Preview," BYU head coach Sue Nhyus said. "It was a good effort from everybody and the entire team contributed. We learned a lot at this event, and it is a good warm up for nationals."

Natalia Jimenez, a junior from Bogota, Columbia, led the team throughout the tournament. She finished the first round even, setting the tone for her performance throughout the tournament, finishing with a 5-over, 73-76-75--224.

Jimenez was backed up with solid performances from Ashley Childers, Juli Erekson and Daphne Vines. Childers started off rocky finishing 6-over-par in the first round, but she improved throughout the tournament with a 1-over second round and a 2-over final round.

Erekson finished 75-76-78--229 and Vines finished 77-79-74--230 leading the Cougars in the final round with her 1-over-par day.

Three Mountain West Conference foes joined BYU in the Fall Preview. New Mexico, who hosted the tournament, tied for 12th place, while TCU finished two strokes behind BYU in 15th place and UNLV finished 18th.

BYU will next compete Oct. 8-9 in Sammamish, Wash., in the Edean Ihlandeldt Invitational.

Cougar Scores
T35  Natalia Jimenez     73-76-75--224  +5
T55  Ashley Childers     79-74-75--228  +9
T58  Juli Erekson        75-76-78--228  +10
T61  Daphne Vines        77-79-74--230  +11
T74  Sara Romero         80-77-76--233  +14
Team Scores
1  	Duke          287-286-287--860 -16
2 	USC           292-285-284--861 -15
3 	UCLA          291-294-285--870 -6
4 	ASU           295-287-292--874 -2
5 	Vanderbilt    295-298-288--881 +5
T6 	Auburn        298-299-288--885 +9
T6 	Arizona       298-292-295--885 +9
T8 	NMU           300-291-297--888 +12
T8 	Purdue        298-288-302--888 +12
T10 	Georgia       304-295-293--892 +16
T10 	OSU           296-301-295--892 +16
12 	Pepperdine    296-292-305--893 +17
13 	Wake Forest   300-298-296--894 +18
14 	BYU           304-303-300--907 +31
15 	TCU           305-304-300--909 +33
16 	Louisville    304-306-303--913 +37
17 	Stanford      301-312-309--922 +46
18 	UNLV          315-308-306--929 +53