YORK, Pa. -- Traveling without two starters from the fall season, including scoring leader Sophia Martone, the Bridgewater College women's golf team remained competitive in the first round of the Spartan Invitational on Sunday. The Eagles' 'B Team' shot 330, essentially the program average, and finished the first round in fourth place among eight teams.
 
Leading the way was Savannah Scott, a senior playing in her last regular-season event. She played consistently throughout the day, making no worse than bogey on any hole, and she attacked the difficult back nine, shooting 38. "Savannah has given us a lot of good rounds during her career," said head coach John Rogers, "but we really needed her leadership today since we were without our leading scorer, and she came through. She helped us stay competitive." Scott shot 77 and sits in 8th place among 40 competitors. 
 
Fellow senior Madolin Neff also stepped up, providing the second-lowest number of her season, a 79 that has her in 10th place. Neff had the only birdies of the day for the Eagles, on #2 and on #16. Like Scott, she played the challenging inward nine at Regents Glen Country Club with nothing higher than a bogey. Both seniors played the par-5 holes at even par on Sunday.
 
Junior Kaitlyn Gaeth continued an impressive run for the Eagles despite this being just her third tournament in the starting lineup. A month ago her lowest collegiate score was an 87 -- but she has gone 83-85-79 since then and added an 86 today. She said she chose the wrong club a few times, costing her a few shots, but she navigated the harder half of the course in 42 strokes, and her score counted for Bridgewater for the fifth time in six rounds.
 
Senior Shaina Beach played very well early in the round on Sunday; after a stretch of six pars in eight holes she was just +3 through twelve. During the toughest stretch of holes, though, she had three large numbers and held on to post 88.
 
Sophomore Evelyn Hunter made her first appearance in the starting lineup for Bridgewater, and Regents Glen is a different style layout than she is familiar with. She managed a 44 on the front despite a quadruple bogey, and completed the round in 98 strokes.
 
"This really was a good showing for the team," noted Rogers. "We hope to have all our starters in place for the ODAC championship, and we are definitely preparing for that this week, but in the meantime the ladies were able to put up a score right at our average, and stick close to some excellent teams in this tournament. Hopefully we can do even better tomorrow."

The final round starts at 10 AM Monday with a shotgun start.