Monday, March 10, 2008

PINEHURST, N.C. (March 10, 2008) - Sophomore Laura Jansone (Jurmala, Latvia) fired an even par 72 to jump into a tie atop the individual leaderboard, helping the ETSU women's golf team maintain its hold on the top spot in the team standings during Monday's second round at the 2008 Women's Golf Pinehurst Challenge hosted by College of Charleston at Pinehurst No. 8.

Jansone is tied for the lead with Charleston's Steffi Kirchmayer at 4-over 148, while the Buccaneers are four strokes ahead of No. 28-ranked East Carolina. As for the rest of the field, the Bucs are nine strokes better than former Southern Conference rivals UNC Greensboro and Chattanooga, which are both tied for third.

"We have a chance to do something we've never done before - win two in a row," said ETSU head coach Stefanie Reynolds, whose team will be looking for its second straight team championship on Tuesday, after having won last week's South Alabama Lady Jaguar Invitational. "I've really been encouraged by the attitude of this team. We're playing with a lot of confidence right now and it's showing on the course. Today, everyone brought something out there again and Laura was really on her game."

Along with Jansone, the Bucs got another strong effort from junior Lucy Gould (Bargoed, Wales), who remained in contention with a 2-over 74 and is just one stroke back of Jansone in a tie for third place. Meanwhile, senior Maria Ringdahl is tied for 21^st, while sophomore Sinead O'Sullivan (Galway, Ireland) and senior Natalia Giraldo (Cali, Colombia) are tied for 61^st.

The Pinehurst Challenge will continue Tuesday with third and final round play. Visit ETSUBucs.com following each day's action for a complete wrap up.