Senior Maria Fassi fired a 4-under-par 68 on Thursday to vault up the leaderboard to second place and lead the No. 6 University of Arkansas to third place after two rounds of the SEC women's golf championships.
The Razorbacks shot a 1-under 287 to reach 2 over for the tournament at the Greystone Golf and Country Club in Hoover, Ala. Arkansas trails No. 12 Florida (9 under), which carded a tournament-low team score of 5-under 283, and No. 11 South Carolina (3 under) heading into the final round of stroke play.
Arkansas will be paired with the Gators and Gamecocks on the No. 1 tee starting at 9:40 a.m. today. The top eight seeds will begin match play Saturday.
"I'm super proud of this group," Arkansas Coach Shauna Taylor said. "It takes a team effort to have success on this golf course.
"We're just trying to take it one day at a time. Tonight we're going to rest and recover. We want to fuel properly and try to pace ourselves to put ourselves in a position to challenge for a title."
Fassi, who finished second at SECs last year, is at 5 under behind Florida's Marta Perez SanMartin, who shot a 68 on Thursday to reach 7 under.
Julia Johnson of Ole Miss is four shots off the pace and Georgia's Jo Hua Hong and South Carolina's Emily Price are five shots back.
Individual medalist honors will be awarded after today's round. Fassi had three birdies on her first six holes and completed the day with five birdies and one bogey.
Arkansas seniors Kaylee Benton and Dylan Kim are tied with four other golfers for 15th at 1 over. Kim shot an even-par 72, which included five birdies and two double bogeys. Benton had four birdies and five bogeys en route to a 73.
The Razorbacks' final counting score came from freshman Brooke Matthews of Rogers, whose 2 over moved her into a tie with freshman teammate Ximena Gonzalez at 7 over for the championship and in a tie for 50th place.
Georgia is in fourth place at 3 over, followed by No. 14 Auburn (7 over), which was a co-leader with Florida after one round, and No. 4 Vanderbilt (+8).
Sports on 04/19/2019