ORLANDO, Fla. – Sophomore Sarah Willis (Eaton, Ohio) continued her strong play during the second round of the UCF Challenge on Monday firing a 3-under (69) as she currently sits tied for third at 5-under through 36 holes.
Willis is just one shot back from second place and sits six strokes behind Miami's Renate Grimstad for the tournament lead. The sophomore made her lone bogey on the eighth hole while mixing in four birdies including a bogey-free back-nine shooting 2-under (35) coming in.
The Nittany Lions had another successful round carding 1-over (289) on the day, one stroke better than yesterday, but fell one spot and now sit in seventh at 3-over (579) after two rounds of play. Miami leads the tournament at 9-under while Kent State and Michigan State are tied for second at 8-under and Sacramento State sits in fourth a 1-under. Purdue and Oklahoma State sit tied for fifth at 2-over, just one shot ahead of Penn State.
"It was nice to see the team settle in today," mentioned head coach Denise St. Pierre. "There are a lot of things for the team to be positive about after today and we are looking forward to Tuesday's final round."
Freshman Mathilde Delavallade (Royan, France) had a few shots get away from her coming in, but still managed an even-par round of 72 after birding her last hole of the day. The freshman added three other birdies to go along with four bogeys on her card. Delavallade is currently tied for 18th after 36 holes with a 1-under score.
Senior Maddy Herr (New Hope, Pa.) and junior Olivia Zambruno (Mt. Pleasant, Pa.) each carded rounds of 2-over (74) to round out the team scoring. Herr is currently tied for 25th a 1-over for the tournament.
Playing as an individual, freshman Lauren Freyvogel (Gibsonia, Pa.) turned in the best round of her young career shooting 3-over (75) while classmate Isha Dhruva (Katy, Texas) ended the day 4-over (76).
As a team Penn State had 12 birdies bringing its tournament total to 26 led by eight from Delavallade and seven from Willis.
The Nittany Lions head back out on the course tomorrow morning to close out the tournament with another 8:45 a.m. shotgun start.
FULL ROUND TWO RESULTS
