Senior Alison Walshe entered the 2007-2008 season as the sixth-best player in the nation, according to GolfWeek magazine. Yesterday, she lived up to the hype.

Walshe’s 4-under 68 in the second round of the NCAA Preview was the second-best score of the day and brought her overall tournament score to 7-under 139. She finished the round in third place.

“”I’ve been hitting a lot of greens and getting a lot of birdies,”” Walshe said. “”The course sets up well for me.””

With the help of Walshe’s dominant performance, the Wildcats were able to turn their game around in day two of the tournament, held in Albuquerque, N.M. They shot even in the second round, a day after a 6-over outing.

But despite the improved round, Arizona climbed only one spot on the leaderboard. It currently sits in seventh place at 6-over 590.

With the team 17 strokes out of first place, the focus for today’s final round will be on Walshe, who will be looking for a tournament victory. She enters the day only two strokes behind current leader Dewi Schreefel of USC.

“”I’ve just got to focus on my own game and keep doing what I’ve been doing the last couple of days,”” Walshe said. “”Hopefully, that’ll be good enough.””