Seniors Lead Gators to Third Place After Round One of NCAA East Regional

Thursday, May 10

State College, PA

12:00 AM

Florida Gators

NCAA East Regional

Seniors Lead Gators to Third Place After Round One of NCAA East Regional

Thursday, May 10, 2012 | Women's Golf

The University of Florida women's golf team finished the first round of the NCAA East Regional in third place with a six-over 294. The No. 12 Gators were led by their two seniors, Evan Jensen (Belleair, Fla.) and Andrea Watts (Bradenton, Fla.), who both shot even par during the first round at the Penn State Blue Course in State College, Pa.

“We are very happy with our start to the tournament,” head coach Jan Dowling stated. “We actually thought the scores of the entire field were going to be pretty low all weekend, but the conditions were tough today with it being cold and windy. We played a very solid front nine, which was actually the back nine, turning at even par as a team. We weren't able to use that momentum as much as we would have liked going into our back nine. However, holes one through nine, our back nine, are similar to Florida's course. They're small greens and very much what you see is what you get. I'm positive we will figure it out as the tournament progresses.”

“I really do want to finish up college golf with a good couple tournaments that I can walk away being proud of,” Said Watts. “A couple friends from back home said, 'Hey Andrea, you know you're a postseason player so go out and do what you do.' So I just want to follow through with those expectations.”

“It's good to get off to the right foot. We need to just keep playing our own game because at this stage you can kind of get ahead of yourself,” Jensen acknowledged.

Jensen and Watts, playing in their final postseason as Gators, will enter the second round sitting in a tie for sixth. Jensen handed in three birdies against three bogeys while Watts had two birdies and two bogeys. Jensen also hit 16-of-18 greens in the initial round.

“I am very happy that our seniors were able to lead us off today,” Said Dowling. “Andrea really gutted out a 72 today. She struggled a bit off the tee, but was able to rely on her short game to shoot a good score. Evan also played a very solid round of golf.”

“I was a putting machine. My putts were going in left and right. The hole was like a big garbage can today,” Watts explained. “I was actually not hitting it well today. I think that's a big step for me. Normally when I'm not hitting it well, I don't play well but today I managed to recover, get out of trouble and make my putts that I needed to make.”

“I just played a steady round. Not too much bad and I was making a lot of pars,” said Jensen “The course played very fair and it was just a mediocre steady round, I guess. I had a couple birdies and I hit 16 greens.”

Junior Mia Piccio (Bacolod City, Philippines) carded a two-over 74. Piccio recorded two birdies, two bogeys and one double-bogey. Piccio is tied for 24th following the first 18 holes.

Camilla Hedberg (Sitges, Spain), the Southeastern Conference's Freshman of the Year, finished with a first round 76 (+4). Hedberg, who is tied for 51st, had one birdie against five bogeys.

Junior Isabelle Lendl (Goshen, Conn.) added a nine-over 81 to round out UF's lineup in the first round.

No. 25 South Carolina claimed the top spot on the leaderboard following round one. The Gamecocks shot an even par 288 and lead No. 2 Alabama by four strokes. Katerina Ruzickova of Texas A&M leads all individuals after carding a five-under 67.

Lendl will tee off first for the Gators in the second round at 12:56 p.m. ET. All UF members will tee off of hole No. 1.

For complete coverage of UF's women's golf program visit GatorZone.com, follow @GatorZoneGolf on Twitter and 'like' the University of Florida Women's Golf page on Facebook.

Team Leaderboard
PLACE	SCHOOL	TO PAR	SCORE
1	South Carolina	E	288
2	Alabama	+4	292
3	FLORIDA	+6	294
T4	Washington	+8	296
T4	Texas	+8	296
T4	Texas A&M	+8	296
7	Tulane	+10	298
8	Oklahoma State	+11	299
9	Michigan State	+12	300
10	UCF	+13	301
T11	Duke	+14	302
T11	Arizona	+14	302
T13	Maryland	+15	303
T13	Arizona State	+15	303
15	Wake Forest	+16	304
16	Northwestern	+17	305
17	Kent State	+18	306
T18	San Diego State	+23	311
T18	Augusta State	+23	311
T18	Chattanooga	+23	311
21	Campbell	+25	313
22	Jacksonville State	+26	314
23	Long Island	+36	324
24	Oral Roberts	+39	327

Individual Top-10
PLACE	PLAYER	SCHOOL	TO PAR	SCORE
1	Katerina Ruzickova	Texas A&M	-5	67
2	Juliet Vongphoumy	Maryland	-4	68
3	Justine Dreher	South Carolina	-2	70
T4	Kelli Bowers	Washington	-1	71
T4	Jennifer Kirby	Alabama	-1	71
T6	Katie Burnett	South Carolina	E	72
T6	Hannah Collier	Alabama	E	72
T6	Gemma Dryburgh	Tulane	E	72
T6	EVAN JENSEN	FLORIDA	E	72
T6	Maribel Lopez-Porras	Tulane	E	72
T6	Jayde Panos	Oklahoma State	E	72
T6	Monifa Sealy	UCF	E	72
T6	Kelly Shon	Princeton	E	72
T6	Nicole Vandermade	Texas	E	72
T6	ANDREA WATTS	FLORIDA	E	72
T6	Jennifer Yang	Washington	E	72