Lady Vols Tied for Sixth After Round One of SEC Championships

Wednesday, April 17

Birmingham, AL

All Day

University of Tennessee

SEC Championship

Photo by: Caleb Jones/Tennessee Athletics

BIRMINGHAM, AL - APRIL 17, 2019 - Mikayla Bardwell of the Tennessee Volunteers during the SEC Championships at Grey Stone Golf and Country Club in Birmingham, AL. Photo By Caleb Jones/Tennessee Athletics

Photo by: Caleb Jones/Tennessee Athletics

BIRMINGHAM, AL - APRIL 17, 2019 - Waverly Whiston of the Tennessee Volunteers during the SEC Championships at Grey Stone Golf and Country Club in Birmingham, AL. Photo By Caleb Jones/Tennessee Athletics

Photo by: Caleb Jones/Tennessee Athletics

BIRMINGHAM, AL - APRIL 17, 2019 - Mariah Smith of the Tennessee Volunteers during the SEC Championships at Grey Stone Golf and Country Club in Birmingham, AL. Photo By Caleb Jones/Tennessee Athletics

Photo by: Caleb Jones/Tennessee Athletics

BIRMINGHAM, AL - APRIL 17, 2019 - Ariana Macioce and Assistant Coach Chas Narramore of the Tennessee Volunteers during the SEC Championships at Grey Stone Golf and Country Club in Birmingham, AL. Photo By Caleb Jones/Tennessee Athletics

Photo by: Caleb Jones/Tennessee Athletics

BIRMINGHAM, AL - APRIL 17, 2019 - Mikayla Bardwell and Head Coach Judi Pavon of the Tennessee Volunteers during the SEC Championships at Grey Stone Golf and Country Club in Birmingham, AL. Photo By Caleb Jones/Tennessee Athletics

Photo by: Caleb Jones/Tennessee Athletics

BIRMINGHAM, AL - APRIL 17, 2019 - Head Coach Judi Pavon and Waverly Whiston of the Tennessee Volunteers during the SEC Championships at Grey Stone Golf and Country Club in Birmingham, AL. Photo By Caleb Jones/Tennessee Athletics

Photo by: Caleb Jones/Tennessee Athletics

BIRMINGHAM, AL - APRIL 17, 2019 - Micheala Williams of the Tennessee Volunteers during the SEC Championships at Grey Stone Golf and Country Club in Birmingham, AL. Photo By Caleb Jones/Tennessee Athletics

Photo by: Caleb Jones/Tennessee Athletics

BIRMINGHAM, AL - APRIL 17, 2019 - Assistant Coach Chas Narramore and Mikayla Bardwell of the Tennessee Volunteers during the SEC Championships at Grey Stone Golf and Country Club in Birmingham, AL. Photo By Caleb Jones/Tennessee Athletics

Photo by: Caleb Jones/Tennessee Athletics

BIRMINGHAM, AL - APRIL 17, 2019 - SEC Tee Box marker during the SEC Championships at Grey Stone Golf and Country Club in Birmingham, AL. Photo By Caleb Jones/Tennessee Athletics

Photo by: Caleb Jones/Tennessee Athletics

BIRMINGHAM, AL - APRIL 17, 2019 - Tennessee Golf Bag during the SEC Championships at Grey Stone Golf and Country Club in Birmingham, AL. Photo By Caleb Jones/Tennessee Athletics

Photo by: Caleb Jones/Tennessee Athletics

BIRMINGHAM, AL - APRIL 17, 2019 - Micheala Williams and Head Coach Judi Pavon of the Tennessee Volunteers during the SEC Championships at Grey Stone Golf and Country Club in Birmingham, AL. Photo By Caleb Jones/Tennessee Athletics

Photo by: Caleb Jones/Tennessee Athletics

Lady Vols Tied for Sixth After Round One of SEC Championships

April 17, 2019 | Women's Golf

Tennessee sits in match play position with three golfers in the top 30 on the individual leaderboard

By: Andy Kovar

HOOVER, Ala. – After the opening round of the SEC Championships, the University of Tennessee women's golf team is tied for sixth on the leaderboard.

The Lady Vols opened up the conference tournament with a first round score of 294 (+6) which has them in position to advance to match play after 18 holes. They enter Thursday just three strokes off defending SEC Champion Arkansas who sit in fourth.

UT is two strokes ahead of Vanderbilt who came into the tournament as the highest ranked team in the conference. The Commodores are ranked No. 4 nationally in the latest Golfstat rankings. Tennessee is also seven strokes ahead of Alabama who finished as the NCAA Championship runner-up last season.

Sophomore Mariah Smith had the low round of the day for the Lady Vols, carding a 72 (E) to open up the event. Smith bounced back from an early double-bogey on No. 2. Over the next 11 holes, Smith was 2-under to bring herself back to even par.

She was as low 1-under and tied for eighth in round one and enters the second round tomorrow tied for 14th on the individual leaderboard.

Senior Ariana Macioce joins her in the top 20 on the leaderboard after shooting 73 (+1) on Wednesday. She hit the turn 1-over for her round and brought it back to even par after a birdie on the par-4 14th.

Last season, Macioce was Tennessee's top finisher, tying for 27th in the event. Just one stroke back of her is junior Micheala Williams who carded three birdies in the first round including back-to-back birdies on No. 6 and No. 7 to help her enter the turn at even par.

Williams, who has finished in the top 10 the last three events this spring, is tied for 28th after 18 holes of play.

Tennessee will tee off the second round tomorrow at 9:50 a.m. ET. The Lady Vols will be paired with Arkansas (+3) and Georgia (+5) who are in fourth and fifth, respectively.

Coach's Take
On going off early in the first group:
"It was nice to be first off. You don't have a lot of time to sit around in the morning. The weather was perfect. It's been great all day, but it was good to just not have to deal with any nerves just wake up early and get going. So, we got off to a good start and have a good solid first round." – Coach Judi Pavon

On all five players shooting well in round one:
"It's good to have all five of them in it. You know, instead of having one person just out of it, and then the low score trying to make up for somebody else." – Coach Judi Pavon

On feelings heading into round two:
"I know they all felt pretty decent. They all know where they lost a shot or two. We could use someone to really shoot a good score tomorrow. If we could get someone to break 70 out there tomorrow and have a really good day that would be good. You know a bunch of them could do it." – Coach Judi Pavon

Day One Scores:
Team

T1	Florida	-4 (284)
T1	Auburn	-4 (284)
3	South Carolina	-1 (287)
4	Arkansas	+3 (291)
5	Georgia	+5 (293)
T6	Tennessee	+6 (294)
T6	Mississippi State	+6 (294)
8	Vanderbilt	+8 (296)
9	Ole Miss	+10 (298)
T10	Missouri	+11 (299)
T10	LSU	+11 (299)
12	Texas A&M	+12 (300)
13	Alabama	+13 (301)
14	Kentucky	+16 (304)