JACKSONVILLE, Fla. – Junior Isha Dhruva (Katy, Texas) paced Penn State during the opening two rounds of play at the UNF Collegiate on Monday afternoon carding scores of even-par, 72, and a career-low 3-under, 69, and currently sits tied for the lead entering Tuesday morning's final round.
Dhruva, who's currently tied with South Alabama's Carlota Garcia and North Florida's Daniela Gonzalez Pinto for first, enjoyed the front-nine during both of her rounds today at the Jacksonville Golf and Country Club. She played the opening nine holes 2-under overall and without a single bogey on the card through two rounds. Dhruva had just three bogey's total over 36 holes on Monday with six birdies to account for her 3-under, 141, score.
"I felt good out there today, my drives were solid, and my wedges were dialed in," Dhruva mentioned. "I also had some good recovery shots that helped me save par."
As a team, Penn State is currently tied with South Alabama for seventh at 18-over following rounds of 299 (11-over) and 295 (7-over), respectively.
North Florida paces the field at 1-over for the championship while Furman (5-over) sits in second just four strokes off the lead. North Texas and Sam Houston are tied for third at 15-over while Jacksonville State sits in fifth at 16-over following the opening day of play in the ninth-annual event.
Junior Mathilde Delavallade (Royan, France) also had a productive day for the Nittany Lions as she currently sits tied for seventh following back-to-back rounds of even-par, 72.
Freshman Drew Nienhaus (St. Louis, Mo.) is currently tied for 36th position after 36 holes following rounds of 77 (5-over) and 74 (2-over) while, playing as an individual, senior Taylor Waller (Canonsburg, Pa.) came out of the gate strong tying her career-low with a 1-under, 71, in the opening round and is currently tied for 23rd at 4-over for the championship.
"We didn't do a good job of keeping the ball in play for the most part, but things went better during the second round," commented head coach Denise St. Pierre. "It's a narrow course so if you are not confident off the tee you will miss the fairways and most of the time be in a precarious lie or situation, there's not much rough so the ball just kicks into the trees or goes OB. I hope we learned some things and adjust our game plan going into tomorrow."
Penn State will look to climb the leaderboard tomorrow morning as the Nittany Lions conclude play with an 8:45 a.m. shotgun start.
Full Day 1 Results
