LAKEWOOD RANCH, Fla. - The No. 2 seeded FGCU women's golf team breezed past No. 7 Ohio University 4-1 in the Mid-American Match Play Challenge quarterfinals on Monday afternoon.

The Eagles will now face No. 3 Northern Illinois University on Tuesday morning in the a semifinal. The winner will meet either No. 1 Kent State University and No. 5 Western Michigan University in the afternoon. The two semifinal losers will meet for third place in the afternoon, as well.

"Today was a good start for us," FGCU head coach Sarah Trew said. "I? think we started out a little rusty as you could tell we had not been in competition for some time. However, as we turned to the back nine, we started to gain some momentum and got much more comfortable."

Ashley Kimbrough assumed the fifth spot in the lineup, but performed like the No. 1 for FGCU by defeating Ohio's Ashley Flynn 7&5. Kelsy Holbert (3&1), Natalia Nassar (1UP) and Madeline Marck-Sherk (4&3) also defeated Marissa Balish, Lily Pendy and Nicole Smiley, respectively, as the Eagles won 80 percent of the five matchups. Ohio's Emily Hughes defeated Madison Easterbrook 3&1 for the lone Bobcats victory.

"I am very proud of Ashley," Trew said. "She has been playing so well and really seems thrive out there. I am very proud of the team overall. Sometimes when you have a bye and the other team gets to play in the morning, they have a little bit of an advantage as they have seen the course. However our girls responded very well and never lost momentum when they gained in a match. NIU will be a fun challenge as both of our teams are pretty equal. We have a good game plan in place and I believe if we stick to that we will be successful."

Kimbrough (Clearwater, Fla./Indian Rocks Christian School) won three of the first four holes by a combined four strokes. She continued her dominant play by not dropping a hole en route to a 13-hole finish. Holbert (Lutz, Fla./Steinbrenner HS), meanwhile, bounced back after losing the first two holes. She won the 13th and 16th holes to tie it up, and then captured the first and fourth holes before Balish stayed alive on the fifth hole. Holbert finished things off by capturing holes seven and eight.

Easterbrook (Burlington, Ontario/Aldershot HS) also fell behind early by dropping the first two holes. She stayed alive by taking the third and sixth holes, but Hughes won the final two holes to win in 17. Nassar and Pendy went the distance, but took the lead for good with a one stroke victory on hole six. Nassar (Floridablanca, Colombia) then stayed even on the final three holes to pick up the close win.

Marck-Sherk (Ridgeway, Ontario/Ridgeway Crystal Beach HS) took a three hole lead through the first nine, stretched it to four on hole No. 4 and then stayed even to finish Smiley in 15 holes.

INDIVIDUAL QUARTERFINAL RESULTS
1. Madeline Marck-Sherk (FGCU) d. Nicole Smiley 4&3
2. Natalia Nassar (FGCU) d. Lily Pendy 1 UP
3. Emily Hughes (Ohio) d. Madison Easterbrook 3&1
4. Kelsy Holbert (FGCU) d. Marissa Balish 3&1
5. Ashley Kimbrough (FGCU) d. Ashley Flynn 7&5

TEAM RESULTS - FIRST ROUND
No. 8 UNC Asheville d. No. 9 Eastern Michigan 4-1-0
No. 5 Western Michigan d. No. 12 Fort Wayne 3-2-0
No. 7 Ohio d. No. 10 Dayton 3-1-1
No. 6 BGSU d. No. 11 Central Michigan 3-2-0

TEAM RESULTS - QUARTERFINALS
No. 1 Kent State d. No. 8 UNC Asheville 4-1-0
No. 2 FGCU d. No. 7 Ohio 4-1-0
No. 3 Northern Illinois d. No. 6 BGSU 4-1-0
No. 5 Western Michigan d. No. 4 Akron 3-2-0

TUESDAY'S SCHEDULE - SEMIFINALS
No. 1 Kent State vs No. 5 Western Michigan 
No. 2 FGCU vs No. 3 Northern Illinois

FOLLOW LIVE
You can follow the Mid-American Match Play Challenge live here.

NOTES
Teams were seeded based on their final fall GolfStat rankings. 

The event is being held at the Royal Lakes Golf Course at Lakewood Ranch Country Club and is being hosted by Bowling Green State University.

FGCU received a first round bye and opened in the quarterfinals for the first time. This is the third straight year the Eagles have competed in the event, and this is the seventh time they've won over nine all-time matchups.

COACH TREW
Head coach Sarah Trew is in her 7th season at the helm of the FGCU women's golf team. She took over in 2011 and has since guided the Eagles to the program's best-ever finish in the ASUN Tournament and 24 top-5 finishes. 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 spring of 2015 saw the Eagles again take third place at the ASUN Championship, and recording their best team score of the season while 2016 again set a new standard. In 2015-16, Trew earned her first ASUN Coach of the Year title after the squad recorded a new program best with a 305.29 average and took second-place at the conference tournament – the program's best finish in the event. In the second round of that tournament, the Eagles carded a team score of 290 to set a low-round program record. The 2016-17 Eagles repeated that success with another second-place finish in the ASUN Championship and for the third time since Trew took over, set a new record with a 302.30 stroke average on the season.
 
SOCIAL MEDIA
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.

SUPPORT THE CAUSE 
FGCU Athletics sponsors events throughout the year to benefit the FGCU Campus Food Pantry (www.fgcu.edu/foodpantry) and the Harry Chapin Food Bank (www.harrychapinfoodbank.org), FGCU Athletics' charities of choice. For more information, including how to make a contribution, please visit www.fgcu.edu/foodpantry and utilize the hashtag #FeedFGCU to help.