UVA tied for seventh after opening round of NCAA Regional

Courtesy UVA Media Relations

The No. 11 Virginia women’s golf team is tied for seventh place after the opening round of play at the NCAA Columbus Regional at Ohio State’s Scarlet Course.

The Cavaliers shot 8-over 296 during the first day of competition. Oklahoma leads the 18-team field at 2-under 286 while top seed Duke is second at 1-under 287.

The top six teams from the 54-hole event advance to the NCAA Championships. UVA is the No. 3 seed in the field and is five shots out of sixth place, currently occupied by – Arizona State and Kent State – at 3-over 291. Washington is tied with UVA for seventh place.

The Cavaliers were led Monday by sophomore Virginia Bossi (Como, Italy) who shot 1-under 71 to finish the round tied for seventh place. She is one of only 14 golfers in the 97-player field who managed to shoot under part.

The start of the first round was moved back two hours to allow for course maintenance after Sunday’s practice round was washed out due to heavy rains in the region.

UVA senior Beth Lillie (Fullerton, Calif.) posted a score of even par 72 to end her round in 15th place. Junior Riley Smyth (Cary, N.C.) is in 33rd place at 2-over 74, sophomore Celeste Valinho (Jacksonville, Fla.) is 78th with a score of 79 and freshman Jennifer Cleary (Wilmington, Del.) shot 81 and is in 86th place.

The second round takes place Tuesday and the tournament wraps up Wednesday. Virginia will be paired with Washington and Vanderbilt for the second round. Those teams tee off starting at 8 a.m. from the first tee.

Live scoring of the tournament is online at Golfstat.com.