Howson Leads The Racers In NCAA Day One

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The Murray State Racers tackled round one of the 2014 NCAA Women's Golf East Regional Tournament and had a spot in 23^rd place at the end of the first 18 holes at SouthWood Golf Course in Tallahassee, Florida.

The Racers' 307 was ahead of Alabama State at 315 and behind Seton Hall's 302. A course-record 277 put Vanderbilt in the lead ahead of Tulane (280), Virginia (283), Duke (284) and North Carolina State (286).

MSU's lone senior Delaney Howson had a strong showing in the first day and finished with an even par 72 after making two lengthy par putts on her last two holes of the day.

Howson smiled coming off the ninth green, her final hole of the day.

Howson and the Racers started play from the 10^th hole today. She made eight straight pars after an opening birdie and made the turn with a 1-under-par 35. She suffered her first bogey on her 12^th hole of the day, at the par-3 3^rd hole. Howson, the Ohio Valley Conference Player of the Year, made 16 pars on the day. She entered the NCAA's with a 73.2 scoring average and was ranked 53^rd in the nation.

The Racers got a par of solid 77's from Sydney Trimble and Jackie Van Meter. Both freshmen, they had a share of 99^th place. Van Meter had three birdies in round one, while Trimble had a pair.

Abbi Stamper was in 120^th place with an 81, while Sophie Hillier was in 124^th place with an 83.

Texas State UCF and East Tennessee made up the coveted top-eight teams, the magic number of teams that will advance after Saturday's final round. All had a score of 289. Pepperdine and host Florida State shared ninth place at 290. Cambell, South Carolina and Stanford shared 11^th place at 291. Auburn was in 14^th at 293. Kentucky and Louisville were in 15^th place at 295. Troy (296), Baylor and East Carolina (297) and Georgia (298) made up the top-20.

Round two of the 54-hole event on Friday has the Racers again paired with Seton Hall of the Big East Conference and Alabama State from the Southwestern Athletic Conference. MSU will start at the first hole with Hillier hitting the first shot at 7:40 a.m. Central. Stamper has the 7:51 a.m. slot, with Van Meter starting at 8:02 a.m. Trimble has an 8:13 a.m. tee time and the Racers will again be anchored by Howson at 8:24 a.m.

The SouthWood course is playing to a par of 72 and 6,257 yards for this NCAA event.

Round One Notes
The Racers started their NCAA experience from the par-5 10th. Howson and Van Meter each made birdie.

Vanderbilt created a buzz when they went out early and blistered the track with a SouthWood GC women's collegiate record score of 277 (11-under-par). The Commodores, ranked 12^th nationally, are the fourth seed.

Tulane's Emily Penttila shot a career-best and a SouthWood women's course record with a 7-under-par 65. She's the leader in the field of 126 players.

SouthWood 's easiest hole today was the par-5 4^th hole (463 yards) that played .42 under par and surrendered 51 birdies and six eagles. The par-4 9^th hole of 413 yards, was the toughest hole at an average of .60 above par and it produced only seven birdies. There were 55 bogeys and nine double-bogeys on this hole.

The top eight teams and the top two individuals not on one of the top eight advancing teams will advance to the NCAA Championship finals at the University of Tulsa May 20-24.

Murray State University Athletics

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