LITCHFIELD PARK, Ariz. --- With Austin Bishop spending the majority of the first round under par, the Biola Eagles started their first PacWest Men's Golf Championship within reach of the top-five teams on the leaderboard by turning in a team score of 304.

"We had an ideal start from Austin and Kyle today. Both made birdies early in their rounds which can help set a confident pace for the day," said Head Coach Max Allen. "Austin maintained his the longest at 2-under thru 16 holes but bogeyed the final two holes. It's not disappointing; it was actually good to learn from the mistakes earlier in the tournament rather than later. We know how much to challenge those pins now."

That 304 mark in the third-best first-round score that Allen's team has recorded in nine tournaments this season and finds itself in seventh place out of 10 teams. Biola sits just nine strokes behind the Academy of Art Urban Knights for fifth place and will try to catch ART U for the second time in as many tournaments.

The Eagles got consistent par scores from all five players during the final stretch of the Hanny Stanislaus Invitational on April 3 to match the Urban Knights score and earn a top-10 finish.

Bishop started his tournament with two quick birdies in his first four holes to jump to the top of the leaderboard. The Glendora, California native shaved a stroke off his score at holes two and four, which saw a combined 19 birdies through among the 49 golfers, and was under par through his first 17 holes. He and Parker Buck were the only two Eagles to record four birdies on Monday.

Kyle McAbee carded Biola's second-best score through 18 holes at 74 (+2) and sits in a tie for 16th place. McAbee started one-under through six holes and was one-over on the front nine and back nine.

"All in all, we are playing as good as anybody," said AllenWe made more birdies than the team sitting in second and our number five guy Cameron Bauer made 12 pars but shot 81. All this says is there are just a few holes getting us, particularly the par 3s. We are a lot closer than the leaderboard suggests. We will be low tomorrow."

Biola will begin its second play through at the Wigwam Golf Course at 10:00 a.m. Tuesday.