University of South Carolina Upstate Athletics
A-Sun Championships
Reiling Stands 10th at A-Sun Championships
4/12/2015 12:00:00 AM | Women's Golf
A-Sun Championship Leaderboard
Kissimmee, Fla. – Rachel Reiling, playing in her final A-Sun Championship, shot a 75 to lead the USC Upstate women's golf team in the first round of the A-Sun Championships Sunday afternoon on the Watson Course at the Reunion Golf Resort. She stands tied for 10th entering the second round.
Behind the play of Reiling, Upstate had the course buzzing early on. The Spartans, who began their round on hole #10, took the turn in a tie for third and moved into second place on the leaderboard early in their second nine. However, a few bad breaks late in the round dropped the Spartans to sixth place. Despite the drop, Upstate has put itself in position to battle among the top team in the conference over the final two rounds Monday and Tuesday. The Spartans are just five shots out of fourth and 10 from second place.
"Rachel played a very good ball-striking round and her approaches put her in position to go very low," said Upstate head coach Todd Lawton. "She did an excellent job staying focused despite missing a few putts along the way. As a team, we played really well through 12 holes, but a hiccup on holes 4-6 kept us from really going low. I'm proud that we are in a position to compete up the leaderboard and am excited for tomorrow."
Upstate opened the tournament with a 313 after counting the 75 from Reiling, 78 from Eden Howard and a pair of 80's from Allea Hawkins and Payton Culler. Sidney Dermody had a solid round going, but settled for an 82. The Spartans converted seven birdies on the day, three by Reiling alone.
Kennesaw State opened the tournament with a strong 1-under-par score of 287. Florida Gulf Coast is second after turning in a 303 and is followed on the leaderboard by Jacksonville (304), Lipscomb (308), North Florida (312), Upstate (313), Stetson (316) and Northern Kentucky (322).
Reiling birdied the 18th, her ninth hole of the day, to go out at 1-over and was even-par after 11 holes en route to shooting 73. Howard also birdied her ninth hole and rattled off seven straight pars to shoot 78 to highlight the individual efforts on the day.
"Eden a lot of pars after a slow start to help us," said Lawton.
Kennesaw State's Dulcie Sverdloff opened the tournament with a 70 to move into the lead heading into the second round. Upstate's Reiling is tied for 10th and Howard is tied for 20th. Hawkins and Culler are tied for 28th, while Dermody is tied for 34th.
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