HARRISONBURG, Va. -- The Bridgewater College women's golf team came out hot in its home event, the Bridgewater Invitational, playing the front nine on Monday at just +9, which gave them a lead halfway through the first round. But the windy, firm conditions on the course got to the Eagles on the back nine and they gave up 24 strokes coming in.

Their final tally of 321 was still a strong team showing, but dropped them into second, 19 strokes behind Lynchburg.
 
"We had a tall task in front of us, trying to stay in front of Lynchburg," said head coach John Rogers, "They recently finished top-10 at a preview for the national championship, and they will be nationally ranked soon, so it was nice to see us hang tough for a while. We will just have to figure out how to finish stronger next time."
 
The Eagles were paced by sophomore Sophia Martone, who, despite being limited in practice lately, came out and played the Mountain Course (at Lakeview Golf Club) at -1. She added a birdie on #11 to move to -2 and she led the tournament at that time. As was the team trend, though, Martone gave back some strokes late in the day, and came in with a 77. "This was the first time in a while that I did not execute my plan mentally or physically towards the end," noted Martone. "I let my shoulder injury control my mind and my game coming into the last couple holes, but I can't ignore the fact that I played outstanding for 16 holes."

She is tied for 6th, five strokes from the lead.
 
Senior Savannah Scott had a similar experience, making two birdies on the front to turn at +1, but the Lake Course took a toll on the back nine where she shot 42 (+7). Her 80 has her tied for 10th.
 
Senior Madolin Neff played the two sides the most consistently among the Bridgewater players, going +4 on each course to match Scott with an 80. Neff had a pair of birdies and only one hole over bogey despite the blustery conditions.
 
Freshman Emily Price counted in the team score for the first time in her career, following a +4 front nine with +8 after the turn (84). She said her chipping cost her a few strokes. She sits in 17th place among 37 competitors.
 
Senior Shaina Beach uncharacteristically had five holes above bogey and came in with a 90. 
 
Playing as individuals, Evelyn Hunter and Kaitlyn Gaeth turned in scores of 92 and 100 respectively. Hunter finished strong, playing the final six holes at +3 with a birdie on #13. Gaeth said she had a hard time adjusting to the greens which were running slicker than usual.
 
"This was one of those strange days where you don't feel great about how the round went, but you look at the final score and realize it was still under last year's scoring average, and last year's scoring average was the second-best in program history," pointed out Rogers. "We only have two rounds under our belt this season and scoring is actually quite good -- the trick now is to find out how low we can go, and see if we can really hang with some of these elite teams."
 
The Eagles are in second among the seven teams in the Bridgewater Invitational, and play resumes Tuesday at 9 AM.