STOCKTON, Calif. — All season long Head Coach Jane Carr entered her team into tournaments featuring the best of the best among NCAA Division II golf. All that preparation was intentional to set them up for this week at the NCAA West Region Championship.
The magnitude of the competition was noticeable in full force during Monday's opening round of play. The event features the top-12 teams from the expanded NCAA Division II Super Region in the west, which includes teams from the normal west region conferences and also the Rocky Mountain Athlete Conference and Lone Star Conference. Included in that group of additional teams is the No. 1 team in the country, along with No. 11, No. 22 and No. 24.
On Monday, the teams from those two additional conferences shone the brightest, holding a firm grasp on all of the national qualifying spots after an intense first 18 holes of competition. The top-5 teams at the end of 54 holes will advance to the NCAA Championships in South Carolina later this month.
Through the first 18 holes, No. 24 Texas A&M International leads the tournament overall with a 289. The other teams in qualifying spots are No. 22 Texas A&M Commerce (293), No. 1 Dallas Baptist (294), No 11 West Texas A&M (295) and Colorado Christian (296).
Biola, which entered play as the No. 5 seed and the No. 25 team in the rankings, shot its lowest round since early-March at the CSU San Marcos Fujikura invitational, recording a 303. That puts Carr's Eagles seven shots off the national tournament qualifying pace in a competitive spot at eighth overall.
Sami Penor and Melanie Reyes led the way for Biola during day one, shooting an even-par 72 and one-over 73, respectively. The 73 was Reyes' best single round since back in October when she shot a 72 out in Hawaii.
Penor's round at even-par is her eighth round of 75 or lower during a steady spring season. It's three strokes better than she shot the first time Biola played this course during the Visit Stockton Invite in February.
Melanie Reyes was among the tournament leaders in pars, shooting even on 12 holes on Monday. She was especially good on par-5s, though, scoring two-under on the course's five long holes. Reyes was especially good to close out her round, as she was one-under par in the back-nine.
Penor was two-under through the first 12 holes of the tournament. She had an incredible streak between holes six and 12 where she shot four-under and had a pair of back-to-back birdies. Her one challenging hole on Monday was the par-5 16th hole, where she recorded a seven.
Things are incredibly tight up and down the team leader board, as Biola's 303 is just two strokes better than the 11th-place team, Cal State Monterey Bay, and one stroke better than a pair of teams tied for ninth.
Biola will have some room for improvement with its third and fourth counting scores on day two. At three and four, the Eagles had two players shoot over their season scoring average and over their opening round scores from the last time at Brookside.
Brady Turnquist and Lauren Lee finished day one tied for 48th overall with a seven-over tally of 79. Lauren Lee's 79 is one of the most up-and-down scorecards you'll see. The Eagles' freshman tied for the tournament-lead with five birdies during the opening round, but she also had eight holes over par to counterbalance those low scores.
She did finish strong, with back-to-back birdies on holes 17 and 18 to set her up well for a strong start Tuesday. Turnquist had a difficult time on par-4 holes on Monday. She shot even-par on all par-3s and par-5s, but the Eagles' sophomore had three par-4 holes where she went more than one stroke over par and added two other bogeys to sit a bit off the pace.
Turnquist leads the team with an average round of 75 strokes in 2022, and she shot just seven strokes over par for the whole tournament the last time at Brookside so look for her to bounce back on Tuesday.
Rachel Shaw recorded an 81 on Monday, which was a two-stroke improvement from her best round the first time at Brookside, but two strokes over her scoring average.
Round two tee times are set for Tuesday. Biola begins its tee-offs at 9:06 a.m. and its players will begin on the back-9.
SCORECARDS
