Avalon Lakes, OH. – Day one of the Mountain East Conference (MEC) Women's Golf Championship kicked off on Monday from the Avalon Lakes Country Club. The Wheeling University Women's Golf team sits fourth after 18 holes of play as they combined to shoot a 349. They sit 24 strokes out of first and are just five strokes behind Davis & Elkins and cracking the top three in the tournament.
Leading the way was sophomore
Nicole Lincicome, who shot right around her season average at 85. She began the day on hole 1 and opened up with a bogey to start her round. She followed with her first par of the day on hole two and added four more in the front nine. However, she was hurt by a triple bogey on hole three and finished the front nine at +7. As she moved to the back nine, she had four straight bogeys to move to +11 for the day and +4 on the back nine. She would finish stronger than she started, hitting par on three of the final five holes of the day. She brought her total score to +13 for the day and had a +6 on the back nine. Lincicome currently sits in the top 10, tied for eighth in the field, as she looks to build off her All-MEC Honorable Mention performance from a year ago.
Following her was a tie between senior
Emily Holzopfel and
Zoila Herrera, who each shot an 86 in the day. Holzopfel was consistent throughout the afternoon, shooting +7 on both the front and back nine. She had three straight pars from holes five through seven in what was her best run of the round. She looks to bounce back on day two and climb her way into the top ten. Herrera got off to the best start of the day, with pars on the first two holes, but finished the front nine at +10. As shekbed to the back nine, it was another strong start for the senior as she knocked in back to back Birdies that brought her to +8. She would finish the back nine at +4, which equaled the best score on the back nine on the team. Herrera looks to build off that momentum as she heads into the second day of competition.
Rounding out the Wheeling top five were
Kylee Tolliver and
Marra Johnson who finished with a 92 each. Tolliver started out strong with a bogey on hole one and two birdies on two and three that brought her back to even. She would finish +7 on the front nine and finished out with a +10 on the back nine. Johnson, who was competing in her first conference championship event, got her introduction to championship play. She shot +9 on the front nine and followed it up with a +11 on the front nine. Last season, the Cardinals were able to improve their score in each round on their way to a 16 stroke victory. The Cardinals are looking to do the same this year as they try and chase down Glenville State for the top spot in the conference.
Round two of the Mountain East Conference Championship begins Tuesday, October 4th with tee time at 12 PM.
