PALO ALTO, Calif. – The Florida women’s golf team improved one place to 16th place after the second day of the Pac-10/SEC Challenge at the Stanford University Golf Course.
The Gators posted a team score of 298 Saturday, 11 strokes better than their Friday round, and enter Sunday’s final round with a 607 total, 41 shots ahead of leader UCLA in the tournament that has 10 Pacific-10 Conference and 11 Southeastern Conference teams competing.
“It was a better day for us,” Florida coach Jan Dowling said. “We limited our mistakes and when we made a mistake, we did not compound it. If you look at our scorecards, we only had four double bogeys. We need to improve still but we were better.”
Juniors Evan Jensen and Marika Lendl led the Florida improvement by shooting matching 1-over 72s. Jensen was tied for 20th place at 145.
“Evan played a really solid round,” Dowling said. “She had two birdies today and she had three bogeys today but she was never really in a whole lot of trouble, and when she did hit a bad shot, she made the smart play and did not let the round get out of hand at all.”
Marika Lendl played a consistent 18 holes from start to finish as she made 17 pars. Her one-over vaulted her 22 places into a tie for 27th at 147.
“Marika had a great ball-striking day today,” Dowling said. “She hit 13 greens today and she probably had between six and eight putts that potentially could have gone in for birdies, but unfortunately, none of them did. But she is a great putter and they will fall for her tomorrow.”
Sophomore Mia Piccio carded a 78 Saturday and was tied for 90th at 158. Junior Andrea Watts had a second straight 81 and was at 162. Sophomore Isabelle Lendl improved 13 shots from the first round and posted a 5-over-par 76 and was at 165.
Sunday’s final round will have a shotgun start with all players teeing off at 11:30 a.m. ET.
PAC-10/SEC CHALLENGE
Stanford University Golf Course (6,148 yards, par 71) / Palo Alto, Calif. / Saturday, Nov. 6, 2010 / Second-round results
Number in parentheses before school and individual is the national ranking according to the most recent Golfweek/Sagarin rankings:
Team scores: 1. (4) UCLA 566 (285-281) (-2); 2T. (22) Auburn 575 (286-289) (+7) and (2) Alabama 575 (289-286) (+7); 4. (14) Arizona 578 (286-292) (+10); 5. (7) California 581 (290-291) (+13); 6T. (36) Washington 582 (287-295) (+14), (45) Stanford 582 (293-289) (+14), (11) Arkansas 584 (288-296) (+16) and (19) Tennessee 584 (291-293) (+16); 10. (3) Southern California 585 (294-291) (+17); 11. (8) Georgia 586 (293-293) (+18); 12. (10) Vanderbilt 593 (291-302) (+25); 13. (30) Mississippi 599 (300-299) (+31); 14. (29) South Carolina 602 (299-303) (+34); 15. (57) Kentucky 603 (295-308) (+35); 16. (21) Florida 607 (309-298) (+39); 17. (1) Louisiana State 609 (316-293) (+41); 18. (31) Oregon 613 (307-306) (+45); 19. (82) Oregon State 624 (320-304) (+56); 20T. (101) Washington State 625 (315-310) (+57) and (97) Mississippi State 625 (319-306) (+57).
Top individuals: 1. (12) Marina Alex (Vanderbilt) 136 (66-70) (-6); 2. (13) Cydney Clanton (Auburn) 137 (68-69) (-5); 3. (42) Joanne Lee (California) 138 (65-73) (-4); 4. (5) Marta Silva Zamora (Georgia) 139 (69-70) (-3); 5T. (70) Isabelle Boineau (Arizona) 140 (71-69) (-2), (15) Stephanie Kono (UCLA) 140 (73-67) (-2), (78) Sophia Popov (Southern California) 140 (72-68) (-2) and (76) Glory Yang (UCLA) 140 (69-71) (-2); 9T. (306) Kelli Bowers (Washington) 141 (70-71) (-1), (64) Ani Gulugian (UCLA) 141 (72-69) (-1) and (3) Brooke Pancake (Alabama) 141 (72-69) (-1).
Florida 607 (309-298) (+39): 20T. (91) Evan Jensen 145 (73-72) (+3); 27T. (99) Marika Lendl 147 (75-72) (+5); 90T. (83) Mia Piccio 158 (80-78) (+16); 100. (73) Andrea Watts 162 (81-81) (+20); 104T. (449) Isabelle Lendl 165 (89-76) (+23).