Blasberg 3rd heading into tourney's final round
The Arizona women's golfers did exactly what head coach Greg Allen asked them to do yesterday: give themselves a chance.
Allen's Wildcats moved into contention heading into the last day of the Pacific 10 Conference Championships after they jumped four spots to tie for third during yesterday's round.
Arizona, which put together the second-best round of the tournament yesterday, is tied with California at 615 and trails second-place Southern California by one shot and leader UCLA by 10.
UCLA posted the best round of the tournament with a 9-over par 297. Two Bruins, Hannah Jun and Charlotte Mayorkas, are tied for first place individually.
Jun shot a 2-under par 70 yesterday.
Just as they did Monday, the Wildcats struggled to open yesterday's round, but they played their last nine holes only 5-over par as a team.
"I felt like we finished really well," Allen said. "Lani (Elston) finished well along with Cassandra (Kirkland) and Miriam (Kraschinski)."
After Monday's round, Allen said the Wildcats would have a chance to make a move if his middle three players posted good numbers. They did just that.
Elston had the best round of the day for the Wildcats, posting a 1-under 71, her second-best individual performance as a Wildcat.
"She made four birdies and rolled in three long putts," Allen said of Elston, a redshirt sophomore. "Seventy-one here is pretty solid."
Kirkland shot a 5-over 77. The sophomore can attribute her score to two bad holes: a double-bogey on the first hole and a triple-bogey on her 11th.
Blasberg looked like she was going to roll to another sub-par round after nine straight pars to open, but made a double-bogey on her 10th hole and three-putted the 18th to finish 3-over for the day and alone in third place.
Regardless, Allen said the team seemed to be more comfortable with the greens that gave them so much trouble the first day.
"The greens are so fast, but the team is getting more comfortable and learning how to read them a little better," he said.
Despite a few miscues on the team's final nine holes, Allen said the Wildcats are in good position to make a run for the top in today's final round.
"In the college game as a team, (10) shots isn't that much to come back from," he said. "We just want a chance (to win) with nine holes to play."