FAYETTEVILLE, Ark. – Battling a tough golf course that saw not one team in the field break par, Arizona Women's Golf finished the first day of the Blessings Collegiate Invitational in seventh place at 20-over par. The Wildcats' freshman tandem of Carolina Melgrati and Lilas Pinthier led the team with opening rounds of 4-over and 3-over respectively.

"Today was a challenging day for every team out there, and the scores show that," said head coach Laura Ianello. "Our team battled the entire round, and I know that experience will pay off for us tomorrow. I am excited to see our entire lineup bounce back with improved scores."

Arizona is part of a pack of seven teams separated by nine strokes on the leaderboard after the Wildcats ended the first round as the top scoring team on the course's par-3's.  Junior Gile Bite Starkute tallied four birdies on the back nine to give the Wildcats an uptick in scoring.
Melgrati and Pinthier posted the Cats' best scores in Monday's first round in the second tournament of the season and in Melgrati's collegiate debut.

Arizona and the rest of the field will begin the second round on Tuesday morning with Golf Channel coverage slated for a live broadcast in the middle of the day.