MOBILE, Ala. ? Despite inclement weather, Louisiana Tech golfers Derek Busby and Trey McNeill both shot two-round totals of one-under-par 143 on the first day of the Callis Communications Invitational to lead the Bulldogs.

As a team, head coach Jean Hall?s Bulldogs shot a total of 579 (+3) although it was only good enough to place Tech 10th out of 12 teams after the first day.

?Overall, we played fairly well,? Hall said. ?I wasn?t disappointed. Our problem right now is putting. Derek and Amrith (de Soysa) hit shot after shot at the pins and just couldn?t hit putts. That was the difference today was our putting.

?But overall I was pleased. This is a tournament with a lot of good schools with a lot of good players. We improved and we are going to keep improving.?

Southeastern Louisiana is leading the tournament at 16-under-par while South Alabama (-14), Mississippi State (-9), Louisiana-Monroe (-7), Mercer (-4) Middle Tennessee (-2), Austin Peay (E), South Florida (+1), West Florida (+1), Tech (+3), Belmont (+11) and Arkansas State (+18) round out the team scoring.

Busby (72-71) and McNeill (73-70) paced the Bulldogs as the duo is tied for 18th place in the individual standings while Matthew Harvey (74-74=148), Preston Smith (71-77=148) and de Soysa (72-76=148) all shot four-over-par and are tied for 44th.
Corey Bartlett rounded out the Tech scoring (76-78=154, t66th).

?For his first college tournament, I thought Matthew got off to a good start,? Hall said. ?We got a lot of positives out of today.?

Hall said that because of afternoon rain, the tournament was halted for an hour before all 12 teams finished the final 12 holes in wet, dreary conditions.

The tournament hosted by South Alabama at Azalea City Golf Course will conclude with 18 holes on Tuesday beginning at 8:30 a.m.