Kyrstin Gemar, 22, of San Diego, cared for everyone she came into contact with and was a very dependable friend. Ashley Neufeld, 21, of Brandon, Manitoba, was an angel who gave the best hugs. Afton Williamson, 20, of Lake Elsinore, Riverside County, was a down-to-Earth person and always sported a smile.

That's how a pair of 2005 Arroyo High School graduates from San Lorenzo remember the three Dickinson State softball players whose bodies were found Tuesday in a Jeep submerged in a North Dakota farm pond. Authorities said foul play is not suspected.

Tony Branscum and Jason Kellar, both 22, attend the college on baseball scholarships and were close friends with the trio found dead after disappearing Sunday night.

The college softball and baseball teams are one big family, Branscum said.

"I was in shock at first and had no idea what was going on," Kellar said during a telephone interview from Dickinson, N.D. "When it was confirmed that it was the softball girls who were missing, all our teammates gathered and created search parties."

Players, friends and officials spent Monday searching for the three women, who were known to take stargazing trips.

Authorities found the bodies with the help of signals from the women's last phone calls.

Officials are investigating the cause of the deaths and autopsies were planned.

Investigators also were looking into whether the vehicle had any defects or if alcohol was

The 12-foot-deep pond where the women were found is a couple miles off a road on a farm northwest of Dickinson, a city of 16,000 people about 100 miles west of Bismarck and 60 miles east of the Montana state line.

The college campus held a vigil for the missing women Monday. Branscum and Kellar were preparing to attend a memorial service Thursday.

Some players on the team were getting "AKA" tattoos — the first initials of each woman — in honor of their former teammate and friend, Branscum said.

"It's blue, really blue, out here," he said. "But everyone is supporting each other — and that's going to help us get by."

Wire services contributed to this report. Reach Kristofer Noceda at 510-293-2479. Follow him at twitter.com/Noceda_Reports.