Cougars lead after the first round of the Lady Aztec Spring Invitational

LAKSIDE, Calif--Carrie Summerhay's first-round 71 led all scores and helped BYU hold a first-place tie with the University of Michigan in wet and stormy conditions at the Lady Aztec Spring Invitational on Monday.

Summerhays, an Honorable Mention All-American and the 2000 MWC Player of the Year did an outstanding job putting her way to a one-under-par first round and a three-shot lead over Courtney Reno of Michigan.

"Carrie had a monster round for us," BYU head coach Gary Howard said.

The Cougars are looking for their first tournament victory of the season. Besides Summerhays BYU was helped by the play of juniors Lisa Dernick and Adrianne Gibby who are in 12th place and 20th place respectively. The Cougars were without the services of senior captain Summer Pierce, but got help from Merrilyn Gibbs who played her best round of the season.

The tournament has been plagued by rainy weather conditions and practice rounds were cancelled for Saturday. All 15 other teams competing were able to take a practice round on Sunday. Because of BYU's no Sunday rule, the Cougars played without the luxury of a practice round. But after a stellar first round, BYU is not complaining.

"You have to feel pretty good about how we played especially when you consider we started today's round cold turkey," Howard said. "It's great to be in the hunt for the championship."

TheLady Aztec Spring Invitational concludes Tuesday after the second round of play.

1. Brigham Young     311
1. Michigan          311
3. Kent State        317
4. CSU-Northridge    320
5. Illinois          322
6. San Diego State   323
7. Long Beach St.    325
8. Northern Ariz.    326
9. Southern Ill.     328
10. Hawaii           329
16 Teams
BYU Individual Scores
1. Carrie Summerhays    71
t12. Lisa Dernick       79
t20. Adrianne Gibby     80
t25. Merrilyn Gibbs     81
t60. Nicole Newren      86
t86 Sarah Bridges       94