LAS -- Junior Margaret Gibby and freshman Alexis Edwards shot a 76 and 75 in the final round to help BYU grab 12th place from UC Irvine at the Las Vegas Founders Showdown, Nov. 10-12.

"Although we didn't place as high as we wanted, the girls gave it their best," BYU head coach Sue Nyhus said. "They showed a lot of heart and improved a lot from the first round."

Gibby bounced back from the first round, shooting a team-low 73 in the second round to tie for 32th place (+13). She shot a birdie in the front nine of the final round and finished out the back nine with solid play.

Edwards improved from the first and second rounds, tying for 43th place (+18). She sank a birdie in the back nine of the last round to score three-over-par.

New Mexico defended their title from last year by winning the Founders Showdown by an 18-shot margin. Katrina Leckovic of New Mexico led individually with a score of 213 (-3).

The women's golf team finished the fall season with the Founders tournament, with their best finishes at the Lady Aztec Invitational in San Diego (3rd) and the Dick McGuire in Albuquerque (5th).

Gibby gave a stellar performance with a personal-best 69 in round one of the Lady Aztec and continued out the tournament tied in third place. In the final round, she shot birdies in three of the last four holes to score a 73 (+1).

Nyhus said she is proud of how the team has played this fall and the improvement they have made through each tournament.

The Newren sisters, Nicole, Natalie and Rachel, in addition to Gibby and Edwards have played in all five tournaments this fall. In the first tournament of the season, the Dick McGuire, the Cougars clenched a 5th-place finish and Edwards captured her top finish at tied at 20th.

The Spring season for the Cougars kicks off Feb. 14-16 at the Wildcat Invitational in Tucson, Arizona, played at the Arizona National Golf Club.

LAS -- In the last tournament of the fall season, the BYU women's golf team hopes to improve from 15th place (+37) in the first round of the Las Vegas Founders Women's Collegiate Showdown, played Nov. 10-12.

"We realize we have to start out better," BYU head coach Sue Nyhus. "We're playing against top teams, so we have to step up our level."

The best showing from the Cougar lineup in the first round was freshman Rachel Newren. She led BYU tied at 36th with a 78 (+6), shooting a birdie and only two bogies in the back nine.

The Cougars' five-player lineup for the Showdown includes senior Nicole Newren, juniors Margaret Gibby and Natalie Newren and freshmen Alexis Edwards and Rachel Newren.

This year marks the second year of the Showdown, which was played for the first time in November of 2002 at Athem Country Club. The Showdown features five teams ranked in the top 30 and five individuals ranked in the top 50. BYU is currently ranked 44th.

"We just need to play our own game and not focus too hard on the fixing the little mistakes," Nyhus said. "This is our final tournament of the fall and we should be trying to do the best we can."

Last year, BYU moved up to a fourth place finish out of 15 teams in the Las Vegas Founders with a solid closing round of 301. The team's solid play was due to finishing strong on their last few holes.

The tournament features a standard 54-hole, with 18 holes to be played each day at UNLV's home course, the Anthem Country Club (par 72--6,194 yards). Each round will start at 8 am and score a four-of-five format.

The complete field includes: BYU, Colorado, Colorado State, Eastern Washington, Hawai` in, Kent State, Missouri, Nevada-Reno, New Mexico, Oklahoma, San Diego State, San Jose State, Tennessee and UC Irvine.