March 13, 2006

HENDERSON, Nev. - Make it three out of four for Illinois sophomore Stephanie Mory following Monday's round of 71 at the UNLV Spring Invitational.

Last week, in spite of no prior exposure to the White Wing Golf Course, Mory posted career-best rounds two out of three times out. This week neither she nor her teammates had ever played Boulder Creek Golf Course (par 72 - 6153 yards.) No matter. Five birdies left her one-under-par and tied for seventh, grouped with four other golfers, including the Mountain West Conference Player of the Month, UNLV's Da Sol Chung. The score was also the Haslett, Mich. native's best-to-date.

"I started off playing really well and I was putting really well today," Mory said. "That was the key. I got a little nervous once I hit the three-under mark, so I think that's why I fell back to one-under, but then I was pretty stable after that."

Throughout the sophomore's previous 72 holes, Mory has strayed no lower than a tie for ninth among Rio Verde and UNLV tournament leaders.

"I didn't know where I was at on the leaderboard. Obviously three-under is going to be pretty high up there, but I don't think I was necessarily nervous because of that," Mory said. "I hit three birdies in a row at one point to get to three-under and just started thinking about the score a little too much instead of just continuing to play. It made me a little anxious to be at that point because I had never really been through that in a college tournament."

Big Ten rival Shannon Johnson (Indiana University) shares the opening-round lead with Long Beach State's Kay Hoey at four-under-par and is two strokes ahead of a quartet of golfers tied for third place at two-under-par. Long Beach State is one stroke ahead of UNLV for the team lead. Illinois finished day one in 10th place.

First-round UNLV Spring Invitational Results
1. Long Beach State             289
2. UNLV                         290
3. Fresno State                 294
4. Campbell University          286
T5. New Mexico                  301
T5. Indiana                     301
T7. Brigham Young               303
T7. San Jose State              303
T7. Texas Tech                  303
10. ILLINOIS                    305
11. San Diego State             306
T12. Memphis                    308
T12. Nevada                     308
14. Idaho                       311
15. Illinois State              312
T16. Colorado                   313
T16. Eastern Washington         313
18. Colorado State              317

Illinois results T7. Stephanie Mory 71 T28. Seul Ki Park 76 T57. Casey Burden 79 T57 Meghan Naik 79 T75. Megan Godfrey 81