Bradley University Athletics

Braves Tied For Eighth After Day One At Bettie Lou Evans Invite

Bettie Lou Evans Invitational Live Scoring

Women's Golf 10/6/2017 4:03:00 PM

LEXINGTON, Ky. -- In the strongest tournament field Bradley Women's Golf has faced so far in 2017-18, the Braves finished the opening day of the Bettie Lou Evans Invitational tied with Grand Canyon and Cincinnati for eighth in the 16th-team field after turning a 17-over par 305 Friday.

The Bettie Lou Evans field features seven teams ranked in the top 100 of the latest Golfweek.com rankings, headlined by #7 Illinois. Junior Frankie Saban highlighted the opening round for Bradley with a two-over 74 to finish the day tied for 23rd overall as she helped the Braves card a 305 at the University Club of Kentucky's par-72 Big Blue Course.

Bradley will head into Saturday's action eight shots behind Toledo and #80 Indiana, which closed the day tied for sixth at 297. The Braves are 11 shots back of fifth-place Illinois (294) and 12 behind #61 Wisconsin (293) for fourth in the team standings. Murray State and Ball State finished Friday in a tie for 11th at 308, three shots back of Bradley.

Notre Dame, which is ranked 27th according to Golfstat.com, had the low round of the day at four-under 284. Tournament-host Kentucky (#33) is second at 288 and #61 Penn State is third overall (290).

Senior Ally Scaccia and sophomore Taylor Ledwein are tied for 36th overall after the pair both fired opening round 76's. Scaccia's 10th consecutive sub-80 round was the 79th of her career, while Ledwein extended her streak of consecutive rounds in the 70's or better to 17.

Junior Brooke Thompson turned in a first-round 79 to close the day in a tie for 61st and fellow junior Chloe Horton completed the scoring for the Braves with an 82 (T84th).

The teams were originally scheduled to play 18 holes Friday, Saturday and Sunday, but inclement weather expected in the Lexington, Ky., area on Sunday has forced a change to the tournament schedule. Saturday's action will now include two rounds with a 7:30 a.m. (CDT) shotgun start to wrap up the event.

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