FORT MYERS, Fla. – The FGCU women's golf team opened the spring slate with a team score of 308 and a third-place standing after the first round of the Eagle Invitational. The Eagles sit at +20 in the 14-team field after Friday's round at Stoneybrook Golf Club and are just one stroke out of second place.
 
The third-place finish ties the Eagles with junior college power Daytona State and gives the team its best round ranking of the 2014-15 season. FGCU stands 16 strokes behind Elon, who leads the field with a team score of 292.
 
"I am proud of the way the ladies played today," said head coach Sarah Trew. "We were a little nervous starting out and hit a few bumps, but the girls never lost their cool and always bounced back from a bad hole. The team worked very hard on being competitive with each other over the break. If we stay patient and wait for opportunities to score, we will put up a good number tomorrow."
 
Senior Georgia Price (Bude, England/Fort Myers High School) led the Eagles with a +3 score of 75 in the first round. Price recorded birdies on hole 17 and 8 with just three birdies and one double bogey on the day. Price ranks eighth in the field of 84 golfers and sits just four strokes out of the lead.
 
Mei Khuan Yong (Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia/S.M.K. Cochrane) sits just two strokes behind Price with a score of 77 after one round. The score places Yong in in a tie for 15th place and six strokes out of the top position. The junior carded two double bogeys and four bogeys but finished with birdies on 5, 7 and 10 to rank tied for first on the team in the category.
 
 
Sara Detlefsen (Eagan, Minn./Minnesota Virtual Academy) and Madison Easterbrook (Burlington, Ontario/Aldershot High School) each carded a 78 on the day for a tie at 19th. The duo rounds out the team's scoring with marks of +6.  Detlefsen carded nine bogeys in the morning round but added birdies on 9, 11 and 17 to finish at +3 on the front and back nine.  Easterbrook also carded a 78 with six bogeys on the front nine and one birdie and one bogey on the back nine.
 
Freshman Ashley Kimbrough (Clearwater, Fla/Indian Rocks Christian School) rounded out the team's production with a +11 score of 83 in the first round. Kimbrough carded seven bogeys and two doubles in her first home tournament.
 
The Eagles also saw three players compete as individuals. Rebecca VanEtten (Trinity, Fla./J.W. Mitchell High School), Gabrielle Brackrog (Highland, Mich./Milford High School) and Chelsea Guoynes (Traverse City, Mich./Traverse City High School) marked scores of +12, +15 and +16, respectively.
 
The Eagles continue action at the Eagle Invitational Saturday and Sunday with a round of 18 each day. The teams will tee off with a shotgun start at 8 a.m. from Stoneybrook Golf Club. Live results for all rounds can be found at BirdieFire.com.
 
For up-to-the minute information and a behind-the-scenes look at the FGCU women's golf program, follow on Twitter at @FGCU_WGolf and on Facebook at /FGCUWGolf.
 
Head coach Sarah Trew is in her fourth season at the helm of the FGCU women's golf team.  Trew took over in 2011 and has since guided the Eagles to the program's best-ever finish in the Atlantic Sun Tournament and to 20+ top-10 finished.  A year ago, Trew led the team to several records on and off the course.  The 2013-14 squad set a new single-season scoring record with a team average of 307.88, while also setting a new benchmark academically.  The team earned a team grade point average of 3.8 in the fall semester and set the FGCU team record with a 3.92 during the spring of 2014.
 

INDIVIDUAL RESULTS
8	Georgia Price	75
15	Mei Khuan Yong	77
19	Sara Detlefsen	78
	Madison Easterbrook	78
49	Ashley Kimbrough	83
60	Rebecca VanEtten	84
70	Gabrielle Brackrog	87
74	Chelsea Guoynes	88

 

COMPLETE TEAM RESULTS
1	Elon	292
2	Xavier	307
3	FGCU	308
	Daytona State	308
5	Toledo	309
6	Ohio	311
7	Southern Illinois	318
8	Arkansas State	319
9	Utah Valley	322
10	Akron	324
11	USC Upstate	329
12	Northern Kentucky	338
13	Drake	340
14	FAU	350