First Round Scoring
MIAMI, FLA. (FIUSports.com) – FIU women's golf has taken a first round lead at its own 36th Annual FIU Pat Bradley Invitational, held through Tuesday at the Lakewood Ranch Golf and Country Club just outside Sarasota, Fla. The Panthers scored an opening round 287 to pace four strokes ahead of Maryland.
FIU's opening-day score was the second-lowest first-round team total in the history of the tournament, only behind the Panthers' 284 in 2009.
FIU freshman Coralia Arias (Quito, Ecuador) leads a group of three Panthers who scored under par in the first round. Arias heads into the second round tied for second at three-under (69). Sophomores Sophie Godley (Notinghamshire, United Kingdom) is in fourth at two-under (70) and Meghan MacLaren (Cambridge, United Kingdom) is in seventh at one-under (71).
Missouri's Taylor Gohn leads the 93-player field at five-under (67). Gohn's 67 ties for the second-lowest individual score for the first round in the 36-year history of the event. Middle Tennessee's Taryn Dunham holds the first-round record with her 66 in 2007. Arias is tied with Southern Miss' Brandi Rodriguez.
Following FIU (287) and Maryland (291) in the top six are Daytona State (293), Southern Mississippi (294), Missouri (295) and Florida Gulf Coast (296). Memphis and North Texas lead the remainder of the 17-team field in a tie for seventh at 12-over (300).
FIU sophomore Jasmine Wade (Oldsmar, Florida), playing as an individual, sits in a tie for 25th at two-over (74), while starters senior Shelby Coyle (Pembroke Pines, Florida) and sophomore Carla Jane (Santiago, Chile) are tied for 43rd at five-over (77). Freshman Lesley Atkins (Harwick, Scotland), also playing as an individual, is in 50th at six-over (78).
MacLaren won the event in 2012 as a true freshman, while Coyle won in 2011 as a sophomore.
Monday's second round tees off at 9:30 a.m. ET on Lakewood Ranch's par 72, 6,275-yard Cypress Links course.
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Joining FIU in this year's “Pat Bradley” will be Bethune-Cookman, Bradley, Cincinnati, Daytona State, Delaware, Drake, Florida Atlantic, Florida Gulf Coast, Jacksonville, Maryland, Memphis, Missouri, North Texas, Southern Miss, Texas A&M-Corpus Christi and Western Illinois.
Last year, FIU picked up its eighth all-time Pat Bradley Invitational title in the first season played at Lakewood Ranch, while then-freshman Meghan MacLaren (Cambridge, United Kingdom) earned the school's 12th individual medalist honor. It was the 12th time in the history of the event a single school had swept both the team and individual titles. FIU scored an 12-over par 876 to win the event, while MacLaren finished atop the leaderboard scoring a one-over-par 217.
FIU's 876 team score was 26 strokes ahead of second-place Cincinnati and tied for the second-lowest score in the history of the tournament. The Panthers' third-round 286 was also a tournament record for final round scores.
This year's Invitational line-up will include MacLaren at No. 1, followed by senior Shelby Coyle (Pembroke Pines, Florida), sophomore Sophie Godley (Notinghamshire, United Kingdom), freshman Coralia Arias (Quito, Ecuador) and sophomore Carla Jane (Santiago, Chile) at No. 5. Sophomore Jasmine Wade (Oldsmar, Florida) and freshman Lesley Atkins (Harwick, Scotland) will be competing in the individual bracket.
Scoring will be available at the end of each day on GolfStat.com and results will also be posted at FIUSports.com.
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So far this fall, FIU has competed in three prestigious events, including Michigan State's Mary Fossum Invitational, Golfweek Magazine's Conference Challenge and Mississippi State's Old Waverly Invitational. The Panthers have placed in the top half of each respective tournament field, including a fourth-place showing at the Old Waverly.
MacLaren is nearing her impressive form of 2012-13, when she won three tournaments, including the 2013 Sun Belt Conference Championship tournament and was named the league's Freshman of the Year. Recently, she was named Conference USA's Golfer of the Week the first week of October after her fifth-place finish at the Golfweek Conference Challenge.
Coyle has two top 25 finishes on the year, finishing 16th at the Mary Fossum and 12th at the Old Waverly. In her most recent outing at the Old Waverly, she finished three-over with scores of 71, 75 and 73.
Godley is second on the team in stroke average at 76.44, and has shown she can compete as she did at the close of her freshman season when she was named to the All-Sun Belt First-Team. Her top finish in the fall has been at the GolfWeek Conference Challenge, placing 14th.
Arias has arguably been of the top highlights of the fall for the FIU program. A starter in all three tournaments, she has progressively improved in each event and most recently stunned the tournament field with a brilliant sixth-place finish at the Old Waverly. At the Mississippi event, Arias finished two-under par (214). After going two-over the first day, she responded with a 71 and 69 in the final two rounds. Her 69 was the top round by a freshman since MacLaren scored a 68 in the middle round of the 2012 SBC Championship.
Atkins, also a true freshman, started the first two tournaments of the fall, but was forced to pull out of the Golfweek Conference Challenge due to injury. After missing the Old Waverly, she is back in the starting five and primed for competition. She comes to FIU as the Scottish Girls National Champion, and a key member of the Scottish Under-18 National program.
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About FIU Athletics: FIU is a proud new member of Conference USA. The University is home to more than 400 student-athletes across 18 intercollegiate athletic programs. The Panthers play events in seven venues on both the Modesto A. Maidique and Biscayne Bay campuses, including Alfonso Field at FIU Stadium, U.S. Century Bank Arena and Biscayne Bay Aquatic Center. FIUSports.com is the official website of FIU Athletics, providing fans with all the latest news and game day ticket information.
About FIU: Florida International University is recognized as a Carnegie engaged university. Its colleges and schools offer more than 180 bachelor¹s, master¹s and doctoral programs in fields such as engineering, international relations, architecture, law and medicine. As one of South Florida¹s anchor institutions, FIU is Worlds Ahead in its local and global engagement, finding solutions to the most challenging problems of our time. FIU emphasizes research as a major component of its mission. FIU has awarded 200,000 degrees and enrolls 50,000 students in two campuses and three centers including FIU Downtown on Brickell and the Miami Beach Urban Studios. For more information about FIU, visit http://www.fiu.edu/.
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