April 21, 2012

Lady Buckeye Spring Invitational Results

COLUMBUS, Ohio - Battling unseasonably cooler weather and rainy conditions, the 16th-ranked Baylor women's golf team is in sixth place Saturday after two rounds at the Lady Buckeye Spring Invitational.

After shooting a first-round 320, the Lady Bears shot the second-lowest score of the second round with a 299 to finish the day at 43-over 619). Host and 18th-ranked Ohio State owns an eight-stroke lead over the field at 29-over 605. No. 44 Northwestern and No. 26 Michigan State are tied for third at 37-over 613, while Kent State and No. 37 Iowa State are tied for fourth at 41-over 617.

Only one out of the 70 golfers in the tournament field carded a sub-par round. Ohio State's Rachel Rohanna shot a second-round 69 to take a five-stroke lead at even-par 144. The top nine golfers atop the leaderboard all hail from Big Ten schools.

"Saturday was as difficult of a day to play golf that I have seen in a long time," first-year head coach Jay Goble said. "The temperature never rose above 45 degrees and, on top of that, it was windy and rainy all day long.

"Our main mission in coming to the weekend was to get a look at this course and get comfortable on it," Goble said. "This course will be the host site for the NCAA Central Regional and we have a good chance of being back here in May."

Baylor's top four golfers are separated by four strokes. During the first round, only one Baylor golfer scored lower than 80. For the second round, four of Baylor's five golfers shot in the 70s. Senior Valerie Sternebeck owns Baylor's best individual performance of the day, shooting 10-over (81-73=154) to tie for 10th overall. Freshman Hayley Davis is tied for 12th at 11-over (80-75=155).

"I believe we are accomplishing our goal because our second round was 21 shots better than our first," Goble said, "and we had the second best round of the afternoon. Sunday is about continuing to get experience on this course and looking to move up the leaderboard."

Senior Chelsey Cothran is at 12-over (79-77=156), tying for 16th overall, while fellow senior Jaclyn Jansen is tied for 21st at 13-over 157. Freshman Emma Carberry is tied for 51st at 22-over 166.

The final round of the Lady Buckeye Spring Invitational will tee off at 8 a.m. CDT Sunday. Live scoring will be available at www.golfstat.com.