The Arizona women's golf team jump-started its season this weekend with a third-place finish in one of the most prestigious tournaments of the year.

The Wildcats finished Saturday's play atop the leaderboard of the 2003 Fall Preview, but a lack of momentum yesterday dropped Arizona to third place, eight shots behind Auburn and Duke.

"We had a tough day (yesterday)," head coach Greg Allen said. "We hung in and fought hard. We just didn't have any momentum going for us."

Sophomores Cassandra Kirkland and Erica Blasberg finished at one-under-par 215, good enough to tie for third place and four shots behind eventual winner Carolina Llano (five-under, 211) of Pepperdine.

"Cassandra played great," Allen said. "She had a chance to win and handled the pressure well."

Kirkland had a roller-coaster final round, including a double-bogey on the sixth hole followed by an eagle on the par-5 seventh.

Allen insisted that even without the win, he was impressed with his team, a young Wildcat squad just looking to play well and see where it stood against other top teams in the nation.

"I'm really proud of the team today," he said. "They played with a lot of heart today. We put ourselves in a position to win. We just couldn't close the deal."

Blasberg, a preseason pick for player of the year, also had an up-and-down round that included a double-bogey on the sixth hole and a triple-bogey on the 11th.

"Erica had a couple of big numbers today," Allen said. "She hung in well after the triple and made three birdies coming in."

The third-place finish is Blasberg's tenth consecutive top-10 standing; her only finish out of the top 10 came at last year's Fall Preview.

"We've got some time before our next tournament to work on some things," Allen said. "This (tournament) was good because it got some of the younger players back into the swing of tournament play."

The Wildcats tee it up next at the Mason Rudolph Invitational Sept. 26-28 in Nashville, Tenn.

Men's Golf finishes eighth to open season

The men's golf team finished the 54-hole William H. Tucker Intercollegiate in eighth place, 23 shots behind first-place Arizona State.

The Wildcats were led by junior Nick Juszczak, who finished in a tie for 15th after opening the tournament with a two-under-par 70.

Senior Chris Nallen finished eight shots out of the lead, tying for 17th, while freshman Henry Liaw, competing in his first collegiate event, ended in a tie for 40th place after closing with a two-over 74.

The Wildcats will tee it up again on Sept. 21-22 at The Preview by Ping and Golfweek in Homestead, Va.