
Gators Stay In Hunt; In Third Going Into Final Round at NCAA Central Regional
Saturday, May 11, 2013 | Women's Golf
Not as many birdies were written down on day two of the NCAA Central Regional at the Jimmie Austin OU Golf Course, but the ninth-ranked University of Florida women's golf team stayed well within the top-eight going into Saturday's final round as it finished Friday's second round in a tie for third place at 13-over (589). With a top-eight finish tomorrow, UF would be able to advance to its third-straight NCAA Championship appearance and 23rd appearance in school history.
Much of what kept UF at the top of the leaderboard was, again, the play of senior Mia Piccio (Bacolod City, Philippines) and junior Elcin Ulu (Istanbul, Turkey) as both remained in the top-20 even with higher scores from the previous day. However, the best round of the day for the Gators came from sophomore Anna Young (Saskatoon, Saskatchewan, Canada), who improved by three shots to card a three-over (75) and move to a tie for 76th at nine-over (153). Young only had four bogeys all day and did card one birdie at the par four, 14th. The round of 75 ties for her second-best of the season and lowest since recording a 75 in the first round of the Allstate Sugar Bowl Intercollegiate back in February.
“We struggled today overall,” Florida head coach Emily Bastel said. “It was a little different for each player, so we worked on some things individually after the round. We are disappointed in our day today, but, by no means hanging our heads as we have tomorrow ahead of us. We will work hard to have a strong finish to the tournament and I know this team is very capable.”
Much of the field had trouble scoring on day two of the regional as only seven of the 126 players participating finished with under par scores. After Young's three stroke improvement, the next lowest score for the Gators came from Piccio, who shot a four-over (76) to drop to one-over (145) for the tournament in a tie for 10th. Even with the seven-stroke drop, Piccio was able to benefit from the rest of the field's struggles and keep a Florida name in the top-ten. Starting on the back nine, the senior had a rough start with a bogey and a triple-bogey through her first five holes. Three more bogeys after that before the turn had her at seven-over for the day and in jeopardy of dropping out of the top part of the leaderboard.
However, Piccio was able to pull it together in a big way on her second nine to record four birdies and nothing higher than one bogey, which came at the par four, 7th. The Philippines native played her second nine at three-under and put herself back in contention of the individual leaderboard trailing leader Emily Collins of Oklahoma by eight strokes.
Following Piccio was Ulu, who was trying to build off a career-low just one day before. The junior started her day off solid with a birdie on the par five, 13th, and was one-under for the day after just five holes, but three bogeys before reaching her 11th hole dropped her to two-over in the round. Ulu still had a chance to salvage the round with eight holes left, but suffered two-straight double-bogeys on the seventh and eighth holes and fell out of red numbers for the week. Going into Saturday's final round, Ulu will be in a tie for 16th at two-over (146) with still a very good opportunity to move back up the board as only nine shots separate her from the leader.
As for the final two Gators in the lineup, sophomore Camilla Hedberg (Sitges, Spain) couldn't quite in a groove as she added four strokes to her first day's score to shoot six-over (78) for Friday and drop to eight-over (152). She'll be in a tie for 66th with one round to play. Finally, freshman Ursa Orehek (Domzale, Slovenia) was not able to capitalize on her career-low from Thursday as she carded a six-over (78) for her day two total, a seven shot difference from yesterday. Orehek remained in the top-40, however, as she is in a tie for 39th place going into the final round.
NCAA Central Regional play will finish tomorrow with the first groups set to tee off at 8:30 a.m. The first Gator will go off of the first hole at 9:36 a.m. Live scoring as well as full first and second round results can be found on GolfStat.com. After tomorrow's round is complete a full recap with complete results of Florida players will be posted on GatorZone.com.
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.
2013 NCAA Central Regional Team Scores After Round 2
Place Team Score
1 Oklahoma 283-286=569 (-7)
2 Duke 284-291=575 (-1)
3 Florida 282-307-589 (+13)
T4 Arizona State 292-298=590 (+14)
T4 Coastal Carolina 293-297=590 (+14)
T6 Texas Tech 296-295=591 (+15)
T6 UC Davis 291-300=591 (+15)
T6 Mississippi State 292-299=591 (+15)
T9 Michigan State 291-301=592 (+16)
T9 NC State 294-298=592 (+16)
11 TCU 290-303=593 (+17)
12 Wisconsin 292-303=595 (+19)
13 SMU 296-302=598 (+22)
14 Wake Forest 299-301=600 (+24)
T15 Iowa State 294-307=601 (+25)
T15 Washington 294-307=601 (+25)
T15 Indiana 292-309=601 (+25)
18 UTSA 302-303=605 (+29)
19 Campbell 301-310=611 (+35)
20 Gonzaga 303-309=612 (+36)
21 Illinois State 301-318=619 (+43)
22 Lamar 303-321=624 (+48)
23 Butler 305-326=631 (+55)
24 Detroit 312-323=635 (+59)
2013 NCAA Central Regional Top 10 Individual Scores After Round 2
Place Name Score
1 Emily Collins (Oklahoma) 67-70=137 (-7)
2 Ally McDonald (Mississippi St.) 69-69=138 (-6)
T3 Alejandra Cangrejo (Duke) 72-69=141 (-3)
T3 AC Tanguay (Oklahoma) 71-70=141 (-3)
T3 Lindy Duncan (Duke) 69-72=141 (-3)
6 Chirapat Jao-Javanil (Oklahoma) 72-70=142 (-2)
T7 Brittany Henderson (CCU) 69-75=144 (E)
T7 Elizabeth Tong (Indiana) 70-74=144 (E)
T7 Lori Beth Adams (UNCW) 69-75=144 (E)
T10 Caroline Powers (Michigan St.) 73-72=145 (+1)
T10 Gabriella Dominguez (Tex. Tech) 73-72=145 (+1)
T10 Jennifer Park (SMU) 71-74=145 (+1)
T10 Julia Roth (Central Arkansas) 70-75=145 (+1)
T10 Mia Piccio (Florida) 69-76=145 (+1)
T10 Celine Boutier (Duke) 70-75=145 (+1)
Florida Player Scores After Round 2
Place Name Score
T10 Mia Piccio 69-76=145 (+1)
T16 Elcin Ulu 68-78=146 (+2)
T39 Ursa Orehek 71-78=149 (+5)
T66 Camilla Hedberg 74-78=152 (+8)
T76 Anna Young 78-75=153 (+9)