Oct. 2, 2010

SOUTH BEND, Ind. - The Illinois (623) women's golf team finished the first day of the William K. Warren Invitational in a tie for ninth out of 13 teams after shooting rounds of 312 -311 on the par-72, 6,079-yard Warren Golf Course.

"It was a bit of a struggle today," head coach Renee Slone said. "Just didn't have our `A' game and we really only had one or two solid scorers on each round on the day. That just doesn't cut it. You need to have four."

Leading the Illini individually was junior Nora Lucas (154) who had rounds of 79-75 and is tied for 21st. One shot off Lucas's pace is junior Hailey Koschmann (155) with rounds of 79-76 and heads into Sunday's final round tied for 24th.

Junior Samantha Sloan (160) and Senior Raquel Hopton (160) are tied for 46th, with Sloan having rounds of 81-79 and Hopton shooting round of 73-87. Rounding out the Illini is freshman Ember Schuldt (163) with rounds of 82-81.

"On the bright side, the teams are tightly bunched together there," Slone said. "A good round and we can definitely pass a number of teams. That means we're going to need four people posting solid numbers, which is totally doable here. Everybody feels comfortable with the golf course, course management, now we just need to execute."

The third and final round of the William K. Warren Irish Invitational will be using tee times on Sunday with the Illinois golfers teeing off between 10:51 a.m. and 11:36 a.m. For a full recap of Sunday's round check fightingillini.com and for live action visit golfstat.com.