POOLER, Ga. (April 12, 2015) – For the majority of Sunday’s first round in the Southern Conference Championships at Savannah Quarters, the ETSU women’s golf team had left every impression that it was ready to contend for a league title.

Unfortunately, the final holes of the day proved costly.

Failing to post a score under par on the final four holes and suffering several over-par scores on the 18th hole, the Buccaneers ultimately finished the day with a score of 15-over 303 to end the day in sixth place on the team leaderboard. Despite that finish, the Bucs still believe they can make a run as they are just five strokes out of third place and are 14 strokes back of team-leading Furman.

“We had a slow start this morning, but fought throughout the round playing some good golf – but then we lost a lot of shots on the last hole,” said ETSU head coach Stefanie Shelton. “This team can play some great golf and we look forward to being aggressive on this course from the start tomorrow.”

Individually, ETSU sophomore Linda Dobele (Ogre, Latvia) and redshirt freshman Dominika Czudkova (Cesky Tesin, Czech Republic) both posted team-best scores of 3-over-par 75 to finish tied for 16^th. In addition, junior Vivienne Chin (Kota Kinabalu, Sabah Malaysia) posted a 76 to tie for 23^rd, while sophomore Rachel Pollock (Guelph, Ontario, Canada) carded a 77 to tie for 27^th.

As for the rest of the field, Mercer’s Hannah Mae Deems and Furman’s Alice Chen both finished the day with scores of 2-under-par 70 to finish at the top of the individual leaderboard. That duo is just one stroke ahead of Western Carolina’s Ashley Thompson and Furman’s Taylor Totland, who are both tied for second place.

The championship will continue with second round play on Monday, followed by third and final round action on Tuesday. Fans wishing to watch the progress via live stats can do so by visiting Golfstat.com and clicking on the Southern Conference link.