LUBBOCK, Texas — Julia Vollmer sits tied for third while Ryann Honea is right behind her tied for fourth as the Wildcats finished eighth as a whole in the first two rounds of action at the Red Raider Invitational.
Both Vollmer and Honea finished the first round of action at Rawls Course shooting one stroke over par. Then in the second round. Vollmer finished shooting three strokes over par with five birdies. On her second go, Honea finished two under par with four birdies.
"We got off to a bit of a slow start today, but the ladies did a nice job of stabilizing through a tough stretch of holes early," head coach Rob Bennett said. "We turned it on in the second round. Julia Vollmer led the team with a three under par 69 in round two and Ryann Honea was right behind her with a two under par 70. Having two players under par on this course is really encouraging."
The team as a whole saw improvements from the first round to the second round. The team as a whole shot 12 strokes over par in the first round, but in the second round, the team collectively shot only one stroke over par, finishing the day 13 over par. Host Texas Tech leads all teams shooting five under par on the day, but ACU is within striking distance of the top five with fifth-place team SMU only holding a three-stroke lead over ACU.
As for the other golfers participating in team play for ACU, two of the three finished with top 15 scores. First, Sydney Williams Improved her +5 round one score to only one stroke over par, allowing her to finish six over and be tied for 11th in the individual score. Kate Pickrell finished the day 10 strokes above par which is good for a tie in 15th. Finally, Jiyu Han completed the day shooting 14 strokes over par.
Competing individually for the first time this season, Jasmine Do saw dramatic improvements from round one to round two. Do finished the first round shooting 10 strokes over par, but went on the finish the second round shooting right on par at 72, good to put her in a tie for 15th with Pickrell out of all the golfers.
Overall, looking at the first day of action, Bennett was pleased with how his players competed on a course that is planned to host a NCAA regional tournament in May.
"The Rawls Course is a regional championship site for this season," Bennett said, "so to see that we can put up a good round and compete against some really strong teams at a place like this shows me that we are continuing to build toward being ready to compete at that event in May. We are excited to give it one more go tomorrow to see if we can move up the leaderboard."
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