LITCHFIELD PARK, Ariz. — Biola Women's Golf will have some work to do on the final day of the 2022 PacWest Conference Women's Golf Championships. The Eagles added three strokes from their day one score with a 311 team total.
Those three strokes opened the door up just enough for a strong day from Dominican University to allow the Penguins to take the team lead through 36 holes.
Dominican shot a 305 in round two, which is the best team total for a single round yet this tournament. They are at 618 strokes overall while Head Coach Jane Carr's day two 311 has the team at 619 through two-thirds of the competition.
"We certainly would love to have built on our day one lead going into the final round tomorrow, but this is what championships are made of. No one is going to give this tournament to us. We know we have to come out stronger and even more focused tomorrow," said Carr.
The top-3 scorers for Biola maintained their positions on day two. Sami Penor leads the way and is tied for sixth in the tournament at +9 through two days. Brady Turnquist is one stroke back from Penor as the pair shot identical 78s today.
Turnquist is eighth on the individual leaderboard through the two rounds, six shots back from the individual leader Claire Shubin from Dominican.
Rachel Shaw matched Penor and Turnquist with a 78 on Tuesday. She's the team's third-leading scorer overall at 156 (+12) overall. She's been consistent, shooting a 78 both days so far.
The Eagles' best round of the day came from the golfer whose score was fifth-best yesterday. Lauren Lee improved by three strokes over her day one output with a 77 today. She had birdies on holes five and 14 to pair with nine pars to build a solid day.
Lee was the only Biola player to improve their score from day one. Dominican, on the other hand, had four of their five players shooting at or better than their Monday tally. The biggest mover, and perhaps the reason they managed to steal the lead, was Lauren Parayno's improvement from a day one score of 84 down to a 75 on Tuesday.
Even with all of that, Biola enters the final 18 holes of this one just one stroke off the overall lead. Biola should still enter Wednesday with confidence, as the potential to score much lower is there. Three of the five Biola players today shot higher to significantly higher than their season scoring average, including the top-2.
Brady Turnquist is tied for the tournament lead in par-5 scoring. She's at even-par on the long holes through two rounds. Sami Penor was leading in par-4 scoring after Monday's round. She slipped a bit in that area during today's round. Look for that to be a focus on day two.
"Sami was steady today, but struggled to get putts to drop. Pin placements made positioning on the green important today if you wanted a legitimate chance at birdie," said Carr.
Hole 18 has been tough to tame for this BU team the first two days. The Eagles shot a combined score of six-over on hole 18 on Tuesday. Making some improvements on that hole alone could make for a special hole 18 experience on Wednesday when BU looks to lock up its first PacWest Championship.
"The last three holes today were a struggle for us," said Carr. "We gave up eight strokes with five of them happening on hole 18. We had no wind day one, but the final three holes today the wind kicked up. It was gusty and unpredictable."
The Eagles will pair with Dominican and third-place Holy Names (621) on Wednesday. The leaders have tee times between 8 a.m. and 8:40 a.m.
ROUND 2 SCORECARDS:
