NCAA Championships - Albuquerque Regional Central

ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. – Junior Kristin Le had a strong start to her first NCAA Women's Golf Championship, but struggled near the end to finish the first day at the Albuquerque Regional with an 8-over 80.

Round two will get underway Tuesday morning on the 6,637-yard, par-72 UNM Championship Course with the event concluding on Wednesday.

Le was 2-over after her first nine holes but finished the opening round with four bogeys and a double. "Kristin played great on her first nine holes," head coach Krystal Kelly said. "Then, unfortunately, she got some bad breaks on the second nine."

One of six individuals competing at the Albuquerque Regional and just the second Bronco (Miki Ueoka in 2009) to qualify for a regional event, Le needs to have the lowest score among them for a chance to advance to the NCAA Championship final, which will take place in Sugar Grove, Ill. on May 19-24. Of the 24 individual regional qualifiers, the three lowest scores will move on.

Cal State Fullerton's Martina Edberg, Gonzaga's Bianca Pagdanganan and Fresno State's Gudrun Bjorgvinsdottir are the low individuals after the first round at 1-over 73.

"Kristin has a positive attitude after today and we have adjusted our game plan on a few holes for tomorrow," Kelly said. "It's critical to be on the proper side of the hole out here and we were challenged by that today."

NCAA Regional First Round Individual Results

T14.   Martina Edberg, CS Fullerton                   73 (+1)

T14.   Bianca Pagdanganan, Gonzaga                73 (+1)

T14.   Gudrun Bjorgvinsdottir, Fresno State        73 (+1)

T24.   Jess Yuen, Missouri                                 74 (+2)

T49.   Paige Lee, UC Davis                                77 (+5)

76.     Kristin Le, Santa Clara                          80 (+8)