April 2, 2001

BIRMINGHAM, Ala. - Jennifer Chastain shot a five-over 77 to place fifth and Samford shot a 329 to place eighth of 14 teams after the first round of the JoAnn Prentice Lady Blazer Invitational, held at the Inverness Country Club.

Windy conditions elevated scores in the first round of the tournament hosted by UAB, as Chastain fired a front-nine 36 to tie for second at the turn. A 41 on the back gave Chastain a five-over-par 77, five strokes behind Arkansas State's Leigh Ann Jones who leads with a first-round 74.

Jones' Arkansas State team also leads the team competition with a 310, followed by Murray State at 313, host UAB (314), Austin Peay State (317) and New Orleans (321) in the tournament's top five. Samford finished ahead of TAAC opponents Troy State, Jacksonville St., and Mercer.

"Jennifer was once again our leader today, but I thought we got a pretty good team effort on a course that is difficult and was made more challenging today with the windy conditions," said Samford Head Coach Ian Thompson. "But this is a course that we are familiar with, and we look forward to using our experience with it to create more success for ourselves on Tuesday."

Becky Hammel shot 42-40=82 to tie for 27th, Tara Clayton tied for 36th with a first-round 84, Sara Gossum fired a 86 to tie at 46th and Rebecca Ozier rounded out the Bulld lineup with a 94.

Tennessee Tech placed sixth in a tie with Cincinnati with 328, followed by Samford (329), Troy State (330), Jacksonville State (331), South Alabama (343), Mercer (354), Montevallo (360) and Western Carolina (367).