PRINCETON, N.J. – The Penn State women's golf team currently sits in first place after carding a first round score of 6-over, 294 during the opening round of the Princeton Invitational on Saturday morning at the Springdale Golf Club.
The Nittany Lions sit three strokes up on Georgetown (9-over) and four strokes up on Penn (10-over) heading into tomorrow's final round. Harvard (13-over) and Rollins (14-over) round out the top-5.
Penn State had a strong showing again from freshman Sarah Willis (Eaton, Ohio) who registered an even-par round of 72, which is tied for fourth place, while senior Lauren Waller (Canonsburg, Pa.) sits tied for sixth after her 1-over round of 73. Junior Megan McLean (Lebanon, N.J.) also finished her opening round in the top-10 as she's currently tied for ninth after a two-over score of 74.
"The course was pretty wet today causing the greens to be a bit soft, but it was definitely scoreable," mentioned Waller. "Tomorrow we just need to make a few more putts."
Rounding out the team scores are senior classmates Cara Basso (Downingtown, Pa.) and Jackie Rogowicz (Yardley, Pa.) who fired round of 3-over and 5-over, respectively. Basso sits tied for 17th while Rogowicz is tied for 29th after the opening 18 holes.
As an individual, junior Maddy Herr (New Hope, Pa.) also shot 5-over and sits in a tie for 29th.
The Nittany Lions opened the round very slow with only three birdies between them through the opening nine holes of play sitting at 8-over before shooting 2-under on the back-nine lead by Willis who birdied three of her final four holes. Penn State finished the day with 12 birdies between the six players.
"We just need to take the same approach [tomorrow] and take care of the little things," stated head coach Denise St. Pierre. "We need to stay interested in each shot and be patient, our putts will fall."
Penn State will open its second and final round of play tomorrow morning as they are set to tee off of hole one between 9:42 a.m. and 10:18 a.m.
FULL ROUND 1 RESULTS
