Estefania Morales Leads QU Women's Golf After First Round Of Brown Bears Invitational

Sunday, October 15

Ledgemont CC - Seekonk, Mass.

10:00 AM

Quinnipiac University

Brown University

Estefania Morales Leads QU Women's Golf After First Round Of Brown Bears Invitational

10/15/2017 7:47:00 PM | Women's Golf

Results

By: QU Athletic Communications

SEEKONK, Mass. – The Quinnipiac University women's golf team completed the first round of the Brown Bears Women's Invitational in second place. The Bobcats combined to shoot a 294 (+10) at Ledgemont Country Club in Seekonk, Massachusetts.

Senior Estefania Morales (Caracas, Venezuela) paced the Bobcats with a career-best 72 (+1) for a tie of eighth place. Alexandra Sazhin (New Fairfield, Connecticut) and Queenie Lai (Hong Kong, China) both finished two-over with a 73 for a tie of 14^th place. Luciana Tobia-Palza (La Paz, Bolivia) shot a 76 (+5) for a tie of 23^rd place and Julia Kemmling (Berlin, Connecticut) finished with a 78 (+7). Abby Chase (Beaver Dam, Wisconsin), playing as an individual, shot a career-best 77 (+6) to finish tied for 26^th place.

QUOTES
Head Coach John O'Connor: "I'm very proud of this team, they played a very tough course aggressively, and that resulted in 17 birdies for the day. Estefania [Morales] was the stand-out today and was playing No. 5 for us, which is amazing. From top to bottom, this is a very good team. Alexandra [Sazhin], playing No. 4 shot a 73, and then Queenie [Lai], playing No. 3 shot a 73 and Abby [Chase], who was playing as an individual, shot a 77. On any given day, we have five players that could very well. Everyone is working very hard and we're looking forward to playing tomorrow on a very nice, and difficult course. It should be a lot of fun."

NOTES

Quinnipiac's 294 for the first 18 holes of the two-day Brown Bears Invitational is the second-best score in program history.
The Bobcats, as a team, combined for 17 birdies for the tournament, led by Lai's four for the day.
Morales continues to produced out of the No. 5 spot for the Bobcats, this time carding the best score of her career. Through three tournaments and seven rounds – including Sunday's 18 holes at Ledgemont – Morales has posted one round over 78 and is averaging a career-best 77.63.
Morales opened the day with six-straight pars, disrupted only by a birdie on hole No. 7, before paring the last two holes on the front nine to hit the turn at -1. She finished with birdies on holes No. 14 and 17 to complete her career day at one-over.
Lai opened with bogeys on holes No. 2 and 3 before back-to-back pars followed by back-to-back birdies. She finished the day with three birdies on the back nine to shoot two-over for the day.
Sazhin also bogeyed holes 2 and 3 and then settled in to birdie three of the final six holes on the front nine to hit the turn at -1. She then started down the stretch with bogeys on four of back nine's first five holes before going par-birdie-par-par to end the day.
Tobia-Palza, who entered the tournament with a team-leading 76.17 average, had a solid round if not for a pair of double bogeys, highlighted by a team-best 13 pars.
Kemmling's 78 keeps her run of sub-80 scores alive for the year. The Bobcats' junior captain shot par-or-better on seven of her first holes, with a birdie on No. 7, to complete the front nine at +1. After hole No. 7, she pared her next five holes before a triple bogey on No. 13 disrupted her run. She followed with a birdie on No. 14 and completed the back nine at +6.
Chase tied her career-best with a 77 (+6) at Ledgemont. A double bogey on No. 3 plagued her round while a pair of birdies on holes No. 5 and 6 kept her at +1 through the first nine holes. She then pared five her last nine holes to shoot +5 down the stretch.