Gonzaga University
WCC Championship Day 1
Zags Start WCC Championships with Solid Play
4/18/2016 12:00:00 AM | Women's Golf
Day One Results | Championship Central
DANVILLE, Calif.-With its lowest single-round score in three tournaments, the Gonzaga University women's golf team saw a solid start to play at the West Coast Conference Championships Monday at Blackhawk Country Club in Danville, Calif.
Sophomore Dania Uy tops the Gonzaga lineup after shooting 1-over-par 73, her third-lowest round of the season. She opened the day with a bogey but then ripped off three birdies in four holes to move to two-under par. After a bogey on her ninth hole, she played her back nine - the first nine holes of 72-par, 5,995-yard Blackhawk Country Club - at two-over, parring eight holes and taking a double bogey on the par-3 seventh. Uy is tied for sixth after the round.
A pair of Zags are tied at ninth after Ciera Min and Bianca Pagdanganan each carded a 74 (+2) on Monday. Min parred each and every one of her first nine holes and followed that up with bogeys on Nos. 1, 2, and 3. The junior added three birdies in her final five holes but bogeyed No. 7 and No. 9 to shoot two-over on the day. Pagdanganan, meanwhile, played her first nine at two-over with bogeys on No. 14 and 15, but she shot even-par in her final nine, tallying two birdies, two bogeys, and five pars.
Just one stroke back, Jena Gao is tied for 13th with a first-round total of 75, three strokes above par. A freshman from Shanghai, Gao played her front nine even with a birdie, a bogey, and seven pars, while drawing four bogeys and a birdie on the second half of her loop. The round equals the her best of the spring season.
Rounding out the GU lineup, senior Raychelle Santos steadied herself after a bumpy first 12 holes, playing the final six at 1-over-par. She is in 25th place with 88 strokes, 16 over par.
Overall, the Zags are fourth with a first-round total of 296, eight strokes above par and within three strokes of second place. No. 38 BYU leads the team competition at 288 (E), while San Francisco's Vanessa Ha tops the individual leaderboard with 68 (-4).
The round is Gonzaga's lowest of the spring, and the Bulldogs have counted fewer strokes during just two rounds in their last four regular season tournaments.
"Today we had a good round and a good start to the tournament," said Gonzaga head coach Brad Rickel. "We may have to get better each day, but today we counted four good scores. In the end, four of them felt like they left a couple strokes out there, but I'm proud of our effort overall. If we learned a little bit about the course today, then tomorrow we will have a great round."
Round two of the WCC Championships will take place Tuesday, April 19, again at Blackhawk CC. The Bulldogs' tee times begin at 8:20 a.m., and they'll start on hole No. 1.
