University of Tennessee Athletics
Rohrback Leads Golf at Darius Rucker
March 02, 2012 | Women's Golf
March 2, 2012
KNOXVILLE, Tenn. - The Lady Vol golf team fired a 305 (+21) on the opening day of competition at the Darius Rucker Intercollegiate hosted by the University of South Carolina.
Friday kicked off the spring season for the Orange and White as Tennessee is slated to compete in four spring tournaments before postseason competition begins. Getting back on the course after the winter recess, UT struggled to find birdies. The five-woman group tallied six holes of par or better out of 90 holes played in round one. A day characterized by bogies, the Big Orange recorded 28 one-overs.
"We were very shaky and nervous this morning," head coach Judi Pavón said. "I am not surprised that we didn't play great, but I am a little surprised that we played so poorly."
Sophomore Kaitlyn Rohrback paced the Lady Vols through the first 18, recording a three-over 74 to lead Tennessee. She recorded a birdie and shot par on 13 holes; the effort was good for a tied-for-16th showing.
"I hit it really well, just a few three-putts held me back from a really good round," Rohrback said of her individual game.
The Lady Vols finished round one tied for 11th place out of the 15-team field. Senior Nathalie Mansson used a team-high two birdies to negate a late double-bogey and finish out the round with a five-over 76. Junior Erica Popson posted a five-over 40 in her first nine holes, but had a solidsecond nine, going +1 to wrap up the day at 77 (+6). Freshman AJ Newell and sophomore Chessey Thomas rounded out UT's scoring, each carding seven-over 78s. Junior Sara Monberg is competing as an individual in the tournament and finds herself in a tie for 60th after a round one total of 79.
"I think we will improve each day as we get back into competition mode," Pavón said. "Our games are better than what we showed today." "We need to keep our heads up," Rohrback noted. "There is a lot of golf left to play and with the questionable weather, anything could happen."
UT will try to move up the leaderboard beginning Saturday at 9:00 a.m. The tournament will move to a shotgun start in tomorrow's competition in preparation for forecasted storms.
Alabama leads the field after day one with a four-over 288 total and holds a four-shot lead over second-place North Carolina (292)heading into day two.
Live results of Saturday's second round can be found at golfstat.com.
| LADY VOL SCORES | ||
| t16. | Kaitlyn Rohrback | 74 |
| t31. | Nathalie Mansson | 76 |
| t45. | Erica Popson | 77 |
| t53. | AJ Newell | 78 |
| t53. | Chessey Thomas | 78 |
| t60. | Sara Monberg* | 79 |
| t11. | TENNESSEE | 305 |
