Buffs Drop To 13th At PING/ASU Invitational

PHOENIX — The University of Colorado women’s golf team is in 13^th place through two rounds of the PING/ASU Invitational.
 
The Buffaloes were seven strokes higher and fell seven spots in the standings from their opening round performance, shooting 14-over-par, 302, Saturday at the Papago Golf Course.
 
No. 23 Northwestern held firmly onto its lead with its second-straight round of 6-under, to take an eight-stroke lead in to Sunday’s final 18 holes at 12-under. Host and No. 11 ranked Arizona State had the day’s best round at 11-under, 277, vaulting into second place behind the Wildcats at 4-under overall. No. 14 Baylor is third at 1-over with No. 6 Mississippi State one stroke behind at 2-over.
 
Colorado’s 14-over was the third highest team score of the round, but the Buffaloes remain just five strokes out of the top 10 and seven strokes out of eighth, or the top half of the field.
 
Buffaloes sophomore Natalie Vo remains in the hunt for a Top 5 finish. Vo is tied with six others for 10^th place at even-par, 144, through two rounds, one stroke out of sixth and three strokes out of fifth. Mississippi State’s Julia Lopez Ramirez and Northwestern’s Kelly Sim are tied for the lead at 7-under, 137, with Baylor’s Sera Hasegawa one stroke off the pace.
 
Vo had Colorado’s best round for the second-straight day, shooting 1-over, 73. She was even through five holes, but had a hiccup with back-to-back bogeys on a pair of par-4s at No. 6 and No. 7. Vo played mistake-free the rest of the way though. She parred 10 of her final 11 holes and got back to 1-over with a birdie at the 512-yard, par 5, No. 15.
 
Senior Issy Simpson and sophomore Lauren Gooding both shot 4-over, 76, in the second round. Gooding had a strong start but struggled down the stretch, while Simpson did the opposite; struggling early with a solid finish.
 
Gooding played the front nine even and jumped to 2-under after the turn with birdies at the 525-yard, par 5, No. 10 and the 322-yard, par 4, No. 12. She dropped six strokes over the next five holes before finishing with par on No. 18. Overall, Gooding is tied for 65th place, at 9-over, 153.
 
Simpson was 3-over through three holes and made par on four of the next six on the front to sit at 5-over at the turn. She rallied on the back, playing the final nine at 1-under. Simpson had birdies at…