Women’s Golf

On a day when Northwestern struggled, Alice Kim shined.

The sophomore from Los Angeles eagled her second hole of the day and birdied two of her last four holes as she went on to shoot a 1-under 71.

That left her in a tie for third place at the NCAA West Regional championships in Las Cruces, N.M., on Thursday.

The top two individual finishers will move on to Sun River, Ore., for the NCAA championships.

As Kim charged up the leaderboard, her teammates struggled.

Freshman Brittany Johnston shot a 6-over 78, ending the day in a tie for 61st place. Senior Ina Kim and sophomores Kelly Robb and Heather Scholten tied for 86th place at 9-over 81.

Seventeenth-seeded Northwestern is in 15th place after the first round with a 23-over 311.

The Wildcats are nine strokes out of eighth place, which is the cutoff for a bid for the national championship tournament.

No. 4 Tennessee is in first place with a 3-over 291. BYU’s Rachel Newren and California’s Sophia Sheridan are tied for the individual lead after shooting 3-under 69s.

Perhaps the biggest surprise of the day came from the West region’s top seed. No. 1 UCLA finished the day in a tie for 10th place, with a 16-over 304.