ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. -- The NM women's golf program opened its 2021-22 season at the Dick McGuire Invitational hosted by New Mexico at the UNM Championship Course Monday.
 
Competing in a stacked field 16-team field that included eight teams ranked inside the top-60 and seven NCAA Tournament participants from a season ago, the Aggies grinded their way through 36-holes Monday, finishing the second round at +4, to bring their two-round score to +24 overall.
 
After struggling in the opening round Monday morning, the Aggies rebounded in the second round of the day, shooting a combined team score of +4.
 
Alison Gastelum and Valentina Origel led the way for the Aggies each shooting +5 to end the second round tied for 40th overall.
 
On the backs of a combined -11 second round, San Jose State currently leads the Dick McGuire Invitational at -5 overall. San Diego State sits in second place at -3 overall. The Aztecs and Spartans are the only two programs in the field to finish the two rounds under par. Host UNM sits in third place at +1 overall, followed by BYU (+2), Oregon State (+3), Kansas (+5), Colorado (+10), Pepperdine (+11), UNLV (+14) and Cal (+15).
 
Fresno State (+15), Denver (+16), Iowa (+18), Texas State (+20) and Colorado State (+32) round out the scores from Monday.
 
HEAD COACH DANNY BOWEN:  
"Today was a little tough for us. During the morning round we did not get off to a good start which was a little rough to watch. We rebounded really well this afternoon and played a lot better golf. Alison [Gastelum] did play well this morning which was good to see. She had a couple of bogeys to finish her round, but other than that she played really solid golf. This afternoon Meji and Valentina [Origel] played awesome. They were one-under and even par respectively so that was good for them. But this morning we weren't hitting fairways or greens. It seemed like the golf course surprised us a bit, and we had that 'deer in headlights' look for about nine holes. The opening nine hole really affected that entire opening round."
 
On the team bouncing back after the tough start:
"After the opening round the girls were good moods and we fought and battled all afternoon and turned in one of the best rounds of the second round, which was good to see. It was also good to see how well we fought and that we didn't get tired. We talked after the round about how important it was that the day didn't get away from us after the slow start because the day could have gotten away from us really quickly if we played in the afternoon like we did in the morning."

On turning the page to tomorrow:
"We're hoping for a bit of a comeback tomorrow. Our players set a goal of finishing in the top-10 which would be a really good goal after the way we started today. So we'll see if we can pull that off tomorrow."
 
UP NEXT:
The Aggies close out the Dick McGuire Invitational tomorrow morning at 7:30 a.m. at the UNM Championship course.