March 14, 2006
Box Score
Boulder City, Nev. -
Samantha Richdale's one-over-par 73 put her at a one-under-par 144, put the Illinois State senior in a tie for fourth place after two rounds of the UNLV Rebel Spring Invitational at Boulder Creek Golf Course.
Richdale is three strokes off the pace set by individual co-leaders Mikaela Backstedt of New Mexico and Kay Hoey of Long Beach State. Coach Ray Kralis appreciated Richdale's two-birdie, three-bogie, 14-par effort on the heels of a two-under-par 70 on Monday.
"Sam probably played better today than she did yesterday," said Kralis. "She is still up there with the top players in this tournament and she has proven she can play with that competition."
With the Redbirds starting on the back nine, Richdale's teammates, Hilary Anderson and Ashlie Rose, both trimmed four strokes from their first-round scores, shooting 76s on Tuesday after shooting 80s in the opening 18 on the 6,153-yard Boulder Creek Golf Course. Anderson had an even stronger round going until she took a six on No. 9, her final hole of the day.
"It was good to see Hilary and Ashlie step up and improve their scores," said Kralis. "Hilary played solid all day before she hit a rough spot at the end. Today we saw the round we've been looking for from Ashlie. We think she is ready to show some consistency for us."
Their improvement got the Redbirds from a 313 on Monday to a 309 team score in Tuesday's round, but the `Birds fell from 15th to 17th in the team standings. Junior transfer Olivia Campos carded an 84 to round-out ISU's team scoring. Freshman Marci Hill shot an 86 in the Redbirds' No. 5 spot.
"We're going to need one of them (Campos or Hill) to step up and give us a stronger fourth score to put our team where we want to be," said Kralis. "But they are just getting their first experience at this level of competition; every round is an opportunity for them to learn. We knew this tournament would be really competitive and some players and teams really scored well today."
Host UNLV leads the pack with a 579 for the first two rounds, six strokes ahead of Long Beach State, the first-round leader. Campbell, New Mexico and Brigham Young round out the top five. Individually, UNLV's Seema Sadekar is No. 3 individually with a 142, followed by Richdale and five others at 143.
The 54-hole event continues with the final round on Wednesday.
