Greensboro, N.C. - Stetson sophomore Alexandria Buelow (Palm City, Fla.) shot two under par 70 in her first collegiate round of the season, good enough to take the lead after 18 holes of the UNCG Starmount Classic at Bryan Park's Players Course. The rest of the Stetson women's golf team did not find scoring as easy as the Hatters stand tied for sixth in the 15-team field at 22 over par.
Buelow, the Atlantic Sun Conference Player of the Year as a freshman in 2009-10, began the shotgun start round on the fourth hole and finished with a flourish by making an eagle three on her 17th hole of the day, the par five second hole. That eagle vaulted her from third place into the lead. Junior Lauren Cate (St. Augustine, Fla.) shot six over par 78 and is tied for 32nd place while senior Alex Banham (Peterborough, England) and freshman Sammi Smith (Louisville, Ky.) turned in the other two counting scores with twin 81s. Freshman Jenna Hoecker's (Rochester, N.Y.) early struggles led to an 86.
NC State's Brittany Marchand (-1), Maryland's Jessie Hollandsworth (even) and Penn State's Emily Ransone (even par) are Buelow's closest chasers heading into Monday's second round. The Wolfpack and Terrapins are tied for the team lead at 14 over par, three strokes ahead of Western Carolina.
A-Sun rival ETSU and Penn State are tied for fourth at 20 over par with the Hatters tied for sixth at +22 with East Carolina. Host UNC Greensboro (+23), UNC Wilmington (+23), Miami [Fla.] (+25), Furman (+27), Mississippi State (+28), Gardner-Webb (+30), Winthrop (+32) and High Point (+55) round out the field.
A link to Golf Stat's live scoring can be found using the Live Stats link at the top of GoHatters.com.
