Results and live scoring (HTML) | Results (PDF)

NOTRE DAME, Ind. - Paige Lee and Blair Lewis each posted three birdies on their way to matching rounds of 1-under 71 on Thursday morning as the No. 20 UC Davis women's golf team opened the NCAA South Bend Regional in fourth place at Warren Golf Course.

The fifth-seeded Aggies shot 7-over 295 on the 6,301-yard course and are just one shot back of Arizona (294) in third and two behind second-place Wake Forest (293). Kent State and Oklahoma State are tied for fifth two shots back of UC Davis. Fifth-ranked Duke fired par to take an early seven-stroke lead. Eighteen teams are taking part in the three-round tournament with the top six advancing to the NCAA Finals later this month.

Andrea Wong carded a 74 for UC Davis and is tied for 25th, Beverly Vatananugulkit shot 79 and is tied for 70th and Betty Chen is tied for 94th after finishing with an 84.

"Today's round was a good start to the tournament," said Aggie head coach Anna Temple. "Everyone did a really good job managing their games on this course. We're excited to get back out and compete tomorrow. The wind picked up a bit on our last few holes and we were able to hang in and make a couple of birdies down the stretch. The team did a good job staying patient and in the present and that was very helpful to produce the good results."

Lee and Lewis paced the Aggies in the first round with nearly identical rounds. Lee birdied the par-4 first hole to get off to a good start and then had another on the par-3 ninth to help counter a bogey and make her turn 1 under. A birdie and bogey on the back nine gave her par on the final nine holes. Lewis played her front nine even and her back nine 1 under, carding two of her birdies on the par-3 fourth and par-4 seventh. She added a birdie and eight pars coming in.

The Aggie duo is tied with five other golfers in fifth place, four shots behind Celine Boutier of Duke who opened with a 67 and has a three-stroke lead.

Wong had three birdies on Thursday, getting two of them on her first four holes and then later adding another on the par-4 16th on her way to 74. Vatananugulkit was 3 over on her back nine while Chen was 4 over to help each of them better their scores from the front nine.

The Aggies will tee off the second round beginning at 5:54 a.m. (PDT) on Friday and will play with Kent State and Oklahoma State. UC Davis is making its sixth straight NCAA Regional appearance and looking to advance to the NCAA Finals for the fourth time.

NCAA SOUTH BEND REGIONAL
South Bend, Ind. (hosted by Univ. of Notre Dame)
Warren Golf Course
Par 72; 6,301 yards
18 of 54 holes

TEAMS
1. Duke, 288
2. Wake Forest, 293
3. Arizona, 294
4. UC DAVIS, 295
T5. Kent State, 296
T5. Oklahoma State, 296
T7. Tulane, 298
T7. Harvard, 298
T9.Purdue, 299
T9. Pepperdine, 299
11. Kentucky, 301
12. Notre Dame, 302
13. Louisville, 305
14. Eastern Kentucky, 307
15. North Carolina, 308
T16. San Jose State, 310
T16. Troy, 310
18. Youngstown State, 311

INDIVIDUAL
1. Celine Boutier, Duke, 67

UC DAVIS
T5. Paige Lee, 71
T5. Blair Lewis, 71
T25. Andrea Wong, 74
T70. Beverly Vatananugulkit, 79
T94. Betty Chen, 84