Lincoln - Nebraska's 2007 fall season got off to a wet start for the the Husker women's golf team on the first day of the Chip-N Club Invitational at Woodland Hills Golf Course on Monday.

The Huskers and the rest of their 19-team invitational field battled poor scoring conditions in the first round on Monday morning. At the end of the first 18 holes, which took just over six hours to complete, the Huskers found themselves in fourth place with a 310, 13 strokes behind the leaders from Kansas State (297).

Early in the second round, the rain stopped, the clouds broke and sunny skies began to dry the rain-soaked players on the soggy, 6,079-yard, par-71 layout at Woodland Hills. The sun raised the spirits of the players and lowered their scores.

Texas State took advantage of the improved playing conditions to fire a 297 in the second round and take the team lead into Tuesday's final round. Texas State enters the final round at 598, clinging to a narrow one stroke lead over Kansas State, which fired an impressive 297 in the rough first-round conditions. The Wildcats added a 302 in the second round to sit at 599 heading into the final 18 holes.

Arkansas-Little Rock produced rounds of 303 and 305 to sit in third place at 608, while the hosts from Nebraska finished the day at 616, 18 strokes off the pace, after rounds of 310 and 306 to finish the first 36 holes at 616. Kansas rounded out the top five at 618 (313-305).

UALR's Sara Wikstrom played two strong rounds to tie Texas State's Linn Gustafsson for the individual lead heading into the final round. Wikstrom fired a one-over-par 72 in the first round before adding an even par 71 in the second to finish the day at 143. Gustafsson produced an opening-round 73 before firing the best round of the tournament with a one-under-par 70 in the second round.

KSU's Kali Quick sits just one shot back at 144 after firing a pair of 72s on Monday. North Dakota State's Jenna Buckwalter is in fourth at 147 (74-73).

Kate White (76-77) and Allison Stewart (77-76) led the Nebraska contingent on the opening day of the tournament, as both players managed scores of 153 to tie for 14th place heading into the final round. JC Stevenson sits just outside of the top 20 in 21st place at 154 (78-76). Elli Brown closed the day in a tie for 25th at 156 (79-77).

Kansas State played sizzling golf despite the conditions in the opening round, as Quick and Abbi Sunner sat in a three-way tie with Arkansas Little-Rock's Wikstrom with a one-over-par 72. Wildcat Michelle Regan was just one stroke back in a four-way tie for fourth with Gustafsson and Sehee Kim from Texas State, Anita Ojeda from Arkansas-Little Rock and Christy Carter from Oral Roberts.

The strong contingents of Texas State and UALR players in the top 10 kept those two teams in the hunt, as Texas State closed the opening round in second place, just four strokes back of KSU at 301.  UALR added a strong 303 to enter the second round six strokes behind the Wildcats and seven strokes ahead of the host Huskers.

The 54-hole tournament concludes tomorrow at Woodland Hills with a shotgun start at 8:30 a.m.

2007 Chip-N Club Invitational Team Leaderboard

Team Leader Board Course:Woodland Hills Golf Club: Championship Tees     Par 71 - 6079 yards current position team scoring rounds total score to par thru today 1 2 1   Texas State +30 F   +13 301 297 598 2   Kansas State Univ. +31 F   +18 297 302 599 3   Arkansas-Little Rock +40 F   +21 303 305 608 4   Nebraska, U. of +48 F   +22 310 306 616 5   Kansas, U. of +50 F   +21 313 305 618 6   Wm. & Mary, Coll. of +56 F   +27 313 311 624 7   Oral Roberts Univ. +59 F   +26 317 310 627 8   Northern Colorado +60 F   +23 321 307 628 9   Nebraska, U. of (B) +68 F   +27 325 311 636 10   McNeese State Univ. +73 F   +36 321 320 641 11   South Dakota State U +75 F   +39 320 323 643 12   Missouri State +77 F   +29 332 313 645 13   Wichita State Univ. +79 F   +43 320 327 647 14   Montana, Univ. of +82 F   +35 331 319 650 15   Boston College +84 F   +31 337 315 652 16   Creighton University +91 F   +38 337 322 659 17   North Dakota State +92 F   +34 342 318 660 18   Redlands College +98 F   +41 341 325 666 19   UMKC +152 F   +79 357 363 720

Chip-N Club Invitational Individual Results