FORT MYERS, Fla. – Behind an even-par 72 from senior Mei Khuan Yong, the FGCU women's golf team got off to a strong start and currently sits in third place following Friday's first round of the Eagle Invitational held at Stonybrook Golf Club.
 
The Eagles are just two strokes off the lead as the top five teams are separated by only five strokes. Mercer leads the 15-team field after carding a team total of 301 while Toledo is in second with a 302 and FGCU is in third with a 303. Xavier and Elon round out the top five after turning in respective scores of 305 and 306.
 
"We played pretty consistently today," said FGCU head coach Sarah Trew. "We didn't do anything overly flashy, but just kept it pretty steady. We had a couple of bogeys here and there, and certainly didn't make as many birdies as we normally do. Overall, we put ourselves in a good position to contend and that's all you can ask for after the first day. Typically, we tend to get better as they weekend goes on, so that's our goal heading into tomorrow. I think we might've been a little nervous today and tried to force a few things in front of our home crowd, but we should settle in tomorrow and hopefully move up the leaderboard."
 
Playing in the No. 5 position, Yong (Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia/S.M.K Cochrane) turned in an impressive performance for the Green and Blue as she was one of four players to shoot par or better on the day. The Kuala Lumpur native sandwiched a pair of birdies on holes five and 12 with back-to-back dropped shots on nine and 10 to card an even-par round of 72.
 
Teammates Sara Detlefsen (Eagan, Minn./Minnesota Virtual Academy) and Madeline Marck-Sherk (Ridgeway, Ontario/Ridgeway Crystal Beach High School) also turned in top-20 rounds out of the No. 2 and No. 3 positions with scores of 76 and 77, respectively. Detlefsen recorded a par on all but four holes while Marck-Sherk dropped six shots to go along with one birdie en route to her 5-over round.
 
FGCU's final team contributors, Megan Blonien (Altus, Okla./Altus High School/Oklahoma State) and Madison Easterbrook (Burlington, Ontario/Aldershot High School), came out of the No. 4 and No. 1 positions to card rounds of 78 and 82, respectively. Easterbrook, who leads the Eagles to this point in the spring and was recently named the A-Sun Co-Player of the Week, approached the 12th tee at 4-over-par but ran into some trouble as she dropped six shots on her final four holes of the day.
 
Playing as individuals, Kelsy Holbert (Lutz, Fla./Steinbrenner High School) shot an 80 while Ashley Kimbrough (Clearwater, Fla./Indian Rocks Christian School) carded an 85.
 
Second-round action of the three-day event will get underway with a reverse shotgun start at 8 a.m. Live scoring for the Eagle Invitational will be available through BirdieFire and can be found by clicking here. Complete results will be available at FGCUAthletics.com daily.

TEAM RESULTS 

1	Mercer	+13	301
2	Toledo	+14	302
3	FGCU	+15	303
4	Xavier	+17	305
5	Elon	+18	306
6	Arkansas State	+22	310
	Southern Illinois	+22	310
8	Ball State	+23	311
9	Drake	+25	313
10	Central Arkansas	+26	314
11	Stephen F. Austin	+30	318
	FAU	+30	318
	McNeese	+30	318
14	USC Upstate	+41	329
15	Western Illinois	+45	333

 
FGCU INDIVIDUAL RESULTS

T3	Mei Khuan Yong	E	72
T13	Sara Detlefsen	+4	76
T20	Madeline Marck-Sherk	+5	77
T26	Megan Blonien	+6	78
T50	Kelsy Holbert	+8	80
T64	Madison Easterbrook	+10	82
T73	Ashley Kimbrough	+13	85

 
FOLLOW ALONG
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.        
 
SARAH TREW
Head coach Sarah Trew is her fifth 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 finishes. 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. The spring of 2015 saw the Eagles again take third place at the A-Sun Championship, and recording their best team score of the season.