WAIKOLOA VILLAGE, Hawaii---The Biola women's golf team completed their first round of the Dennis Rose Intercollegiate at the beautiful Village Course at Waikoloa.

"We played really solid golf today with every player in the 70's," stated head coach Jane Carr. "That is what you need from players in order to stay toward the top of this leaderboard. Our ball striking was good today, but we struggled a bit with the speed of the greens. I think we have ourselves in a great spot for tomorrow."

Biola competed against three nationally ranked teams and four teams that are receiving votes from the Women's Golf Coaches Association (WGCA). The nationally ranked teams in attendance were No. 9 Cal State San Marcos, No. 13 UT Tyler and No. 16 University of Missouri - St. Louis. Simon Fraser, Cal State East Bay, Hawaii Hilo and Cal State Monterey Bay are the teams that are receiving votes from the WGCA.

The Eagles finished the first round tied for sixth with No. 9 Cal State San Marcos and Sonoma State with a team score of +17. BU also out-scored Hawaii Hilo and Cal State Monterey Bay (receiving votes).

Laura Ortiz led the Eagles with a scorecard of two-above-par 74. BU's final four golfers finished a stroke apart. Abigale Morris was next-best for BU on the leaderboard, scoring four-above-par 76. Morris was followed by Melanie Reyes (77), Theresa Shaw (78) and Rachel Shaw (79).

"Abi had an incredible day," shared Carr. "She is such a strong athlete and is long off the tee. She is really maturing as a player and that was so evident today. After an unfortunate triple on hole 18 she came back with a birdie and eight pars. That is tough to do and I was very proud of how she bounced back."

Ortiz and Rachel Shaw led Biola in birdie scoring, recording three each. Morris was the Eagles' leader in par-scoring, collecting 12 pars throughout the first round.

Claire Shubin competed as an individual and earned three-above-par 75 in her first round.

Biola has one more round to go which is set to begin tomorrow Tuesday, Oct. 22 at 8 a.m. HT.