BREMERTON, Wash. - Freshman Raychelle Santos shot a 1-under par 71 Monday for second place and Gonzaga University's women's golf team finds itself in the thick of the West Coast Conference Golf Championship race after 18 holes.
The Bulldogs shot an opening-round 298 and trail 11-time defending champion Pepperdine University by five strokes entering Tuesday's second round of the 54-hole event at Gold Mountain Golf Course. The tournament is being played on the 6,083-yard, par 72 Olympic Course.
Santos birdied the 502-yard, par 5 sixth hole and the 371-yard, par 4 seventh hole to go 2-under. She bogeyed the 184-yard par 3 eighth hole to go out in 1-under 35. She went to even par with a bogey 5 on the 13th hole but got the stroke back with a birdie on the par 4 15th hole.
Santos, however, wasn't totally pleased with her effort.
"I want to go out and player better," she said.
But she believed playing the course last fall helped in preparation for the tournament.
"The course was great and the conditions were good," she said of the mostly sunny day that saw temperatures in the high 50s. "The practice round helped me and was another chance to make me better and make us better."
Head coach Brad Rickel thought his freshman was the sparkplug.
"Raychelle is just a good solid player and was solid today. I'm proud of her and thought she did a good job," Rickel said.
Grace Na of Pepperdine shot an opening-round 70 for the first-day lead.
Defending champion Victoria Fallgren of the Bulldogs overcame a double bogey-bogey-bogey start to shoot a 2-over 74 for a tie for fifth. Fallgren birdied the ninth hole, then strung together six pars on the back nine before finishing birdie-bogey-birdie.
"I think after talking to her she was just putting too much pressure on herself," Rickel said of Fallgren's start. "I told her on the fifth tee box exactly how I felt about that and she went about her business a lot better after that."
Genavive 'Genna' Dodge is also in the top 10 after one round with a 76. She was 1-over on the front nine and had a string of eight pars snapped when she finished with a double-bogey on 17 and a bogey on 18. She is playing in her inaugural WCC Championship.
"Genna was 1-over for 16 holes, hit a bad shot on 17 and it cost her. She played solid golf, had a good attitude and hit some good shots," Rickel said.
If there was one hiccup on Monday it was the finishing holes where the five players combined to go 8-over par the last three holes and the four players who counted in the team score were 6-over par over the final three holes.
"We stumbled," Rickel said matter-of-factly. "I don't know that it was pressure, but through 15 holes I was proud of how my team played, their business, their mood. I don't know if they got ahead of themselves but we learned a couple of lessons. One lesson was we are good enough to achieve the goal and two, if we are going to let it get away from us we need to reel it back in quicker."
Even though the Bulldogs played a practice round last fall at the course, Rickel said it had little bearing on how the squad performed Monday.
"We know the golf course, but the course we played in the fall was totally different. It was hard, fast and warm. The course is playing completely differently now," Rickel explained.
Other than the finishing holes, Rickel said his team needs to just work on getting better Tuesday than they were Monday.
"We have to get one day better which is always what we try to do. We need to keep a positive mood and emotional outlook until ball has fallen on the last hole. We start on the 10th hole Tuesday so we'll see the course in a different order. We just have to do more of the same just do it better," Rickel said.
