March 26, 2003

LUBBOCK, Texas - Texas Tech's Sheila Mendez (El Paso, Texas/Franklin) and Jackie Ey (San Antonio, Texas/Churchill) moved to within five shots of the lead with rounds of 76 and 74, respectively, during second round play at the Pioneer Electronic UCLA Classic in Santa Clarita, Calif., Tuesday.

The final round of the 54-hole event tees off Wednesday morning with an 8 a.m. start. Texas Tech is one of 25 teams in the field, which boasts six teams ranked among the nation's top 20, including top-ranked Pepperdine.

Mendez and Ey begin the third round in a three-way tie in eighth place, while Kim Kolb (Sioux Falls, S.D./O'Gorman) moved into a 16th-place tie on Tuesday. Megan Hull (Mansfield, Texas/Mansfield) improved seven shots from the first round and is tied in 72nd place and Hazel Tan (Sarasota, Fla./Bradenton Academy) is tied in 77th place.

The Lady Raiders improved seven spots in the standings to a fifth-place tie with UCLA "B" Team, and trail four teams ranked among the nation's top 20 - (5) Southern California, (1) Pepperdine, (8) California and (12) New Mexico, respectively.

Following Texas Tech and UCLA "B" Team, San Jose State, (13) UCLA, (23) New Mexico State and (11) Washington round out the top 10. Stanford, Washington State, BYU, San Francisco and Oregon State are 11th through 15, while UC-Irvine, CSU-Northridge, Oregon, Long Beach State and Portland State complete the top 20.

(National rankings in parentheses)